JAKARTA: Indonesia on Friday (Oct 17) launched a new economic stimulus package that includes cash handouts totalling 30 trillion rupiah (US$1.81 billion) for 35 million households and expanded a planned paid internship scheme, its chief economic minister said.
The cash handouts will be distributed as early as next week and will last until the end of the year, Airlangga Hartarto told a press conference.
The new package comes on top of a nearly $1 billion stimulus announced in September, which consisted of food assistance, temporary jobs in construction and also launched the internship programme.
This will now be extended to a total of 100,000 university graduates, up from 20,000 under the previous plan, Airlangga said.
The budget for the additional 80,000 interns was allocated at around 1.4 trillion rupiah, state secretariat minister Prasetyo Hadi said.
Separately, the Finance Ministry published a regulation stating that the government will cover 6% out of the 11% value-added tax on economy-class domestic air fares for the travel period of December 22 to January 10.
Discounts for air travel for the year-end holidays were included in the stimulus package the government announced last month to encourage spending.
Southeast Asia's largest economy was rocked by sometimes deadly protests from August to September, which some economists blamed on rising inequality and a lack of job opportunities, even though economic growth has stabilised at around 5% since the pandemic.
President Prabowo Subianto has pledged to lift growth to 8% during his term, which will last until 2029. (US$1 = 16,575 rupiah) - Reuters
