Villages, Disadvantaged Regions Development, and Transmigration Minister Abdul Halim Iskandar has said  that 40 percent of the Village Fund budget allocated for Village Cash Assistance (BLT) is a form of support for the poor.

“Every village chief and official should support this. This is a form of the government’s commitment to reducing the rate of extreme poverty in villages,” the minister said in a written statement here on Friday.

According to Iskandar, 40 percent of the Village Fund for Village BLT could expedite the handling of poverty and eradication of extreme poverty in villages.

This allocation is stipulated in Presidential Regulation No. 104 of 2021 on 2022 State Budget Outline.

In addition, the regulation states that 30 percent of the Village Fund is utilized for the food resiliency program, eight percent as funding for COVID-19 handling, and the rest for other priority sectors.

The minister expects that allocation of the Village Fund could be felt by all villagers, especially those of the middle and lower economic status on account of an increase in the extreme poverty rate due to COVID-19.

Iskandar made assurance that the Village Fund BLT would not harm the development process in villages.

“The rest 60 percent (of the Village Fund) could be flexibly used for village development in accordance with the result of the village discussion,” the minister noted during a workshop here on Thursday.

“Thus, village development would not be harmed,” he affirmed.

In 2021, the Villages, Disadvantaged Regions Development, and Transmigration Ministry disbursed at least Rp16 trillion, according to Iskandar. Some 5,621,644 families had become BLT recipients.

“Around 38 percent of the recipients were women as the household heads,” he pointed out.

Extreme poverty is defined as a condition wherein a person’s income is less than the purchasing power parity (PPP) standard of US$1.9.

Source: Antara News