JAKARTA: The Indonesian government has announced that consumer stimuli will be reintroduced in the second half of the year to spur economic activities amid a volatile global economy.
Coordinating Economy Minister Airlangga Hartarto said in a press conference on Monday that the Middle East conflict posed “geoeconomical challenges” that still loomed large, notwithstanding the peace prospect from the deal between the United States and Iran.
“We need to keep protecting the domestic economy and we have to do so by taking proactive steps to prevent and anticipate the external risks that might spring up,” said Airlangga.
The measures would cost the state some 26.34 trillion rupiah, most of which will be spent on food assistance, namely 10kg rice handouts for 33.24 million beneficiaries in the third quarter.
The total spending for the rice programme was tagged at 17.54 trillion rupiah.
The government also planned to spend 500 billion rupiah on subsidies for tempeh and tofu producers when soybean price exceeded the government’s benchmark price, which brings the spending plan total to 18.04 trillion rupiah just for food assistance.
The next big ticket in the stimulus package was reserved for the internship and vocational training programme, tagged at 6.26 trillion rupiah.
The programme had been on the roll since October last year with the intention of creating jobs and sustaining household spending by providing the interns with stipends pegged to the respective provincial minimum wage.
The other measures take shape in transportation stimulus and tax incentives, similar to what has been enforced in the past few months.
The government would exempt all value added tax in airfares for domestic flights during the mid-year holiday season, targeting 2.3 million travellers.
The same measure would also be enforced during the Christmas and New Year’s festivities, targeting 3.7 million passengers. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
