FILE PHOTO: Students eat lunch on the first day of a free-meal programme at a junior high school in Cimahi, West Java, on January 6, 2025. Planned spending on the programme, which targets reaching 83 million people in the coming months, is now forecast at 350 trillion rupiah (US$21.4 billion) next year. - AFP
JAKARTA: Indonesia has trimmed spending plans for what could still be the world’s second-most expensive free meals programme, offering modest relief from fiscal pressures as President Prabowo Subianto advances a host of big-ticket projects.
Planned spending on the programme, which targets reaching 83 million people in the coming months, is now forecast at 350 trillion rupiah (US$21.4 billion) next year after officials revised ingredient cost estimates lower by a third, said Dadan Hindayana, head of the newly created National Nutrition Agency. That marks a 22 per cent drop from spending plans earlier this year.
