Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Presidential Staff Office (KSP) is optimistic that the cooking oil cash assistance of Rp100 thousand per month could ease the burden on people affected by the hike in the price of cooking oil.
“The purpose of providing cooking oil cash assistance is to ease the burden on the community from the increase in cooking oil prices due to the (price) surge in the international market,” KSP Main Expert Abraham Wirotomo stated at the Presidential Palace Complex here on Wednesday.
The KSP has encouraged to expedite the distribution of assistance to enable the community to feel the economic stimulus at the earliest.
The cooking oil cash assistance worth Rp100 thousand is provided to each beneficiary family for April, May, and June 2022, though paid all at once, specifically Rp300 thousand, in April 2022.
The program is targeting as many as 23 million recipients comprising 20.5 million beneficiaries recorded as recipients of the non-cash food assistance (BPNT) and the Family Hope Program (PKH) as well as 2.5 million street vendors.
Wirotomo explained that recipients of the cooking oil cash assistance are people registered in the integrated social welfare data (DTKS) owned by the Ministry of Social Affairs. The DTKS serves as a database that has been synchronized with the population data (NIK) and has been verified.
“Hence, the distribution of cash assistance can be right on target, and this is to prevent duplicate and fictitious data,” he explained.
Wirotomo also ensured that the beneficiaries could spend the cash at any shop or stall to reduce the likelihood of manipulation or monopoly by several parties.
“People are free to shop anywhere. However, we urge and hope that the cash assistance would actually be used to buy cooking oil,” the KSP main expert stated.
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