September 26, 2025 | 08:06 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa will put the free nutritious meal budget in several regions under scutiny. The new minister, who replaced former Finance Minister Sri Mulyani during last cabinet reshuffle, will visit 20 locations implementing the program.
The plan was revealed by Purbaya after visiting the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) office on Friday, September 26, 2025. Purbaya explained that the initiative is taken to ensure proper utilization of fundings.
"We will check whether the implementation is proper. I just want to make sure the program runs properly and has impacts on the economy," he said, adding that he will make sure of no "headache" to future free nutritious meal audits.
Minister Purbaya said the monitoring process will begin by involving regional Finance Ministry staffers. "I have deployed some of the ministry staff in the regions, we have picked 20 locations at random. We will see how the implementation is," he said.
According to him, this measure will actually help the program run by BGN head Dadan Hindayana, ensuring that the funds are absorbed effectively. Nevertheless, Purbaya will pull any idle funds in the free nutritious meal.
At the same event, Dadan explained that the free meal budget realization will grow along with the addition of more Nutrition Fulfillment Service Units (SPPG) or public kitchens.
"The absorption of the National Nutrition Agency budget correlates positively with the number of beneficiaries and is identical to the number of established SPPGs," said Dadan.
Each kitchen results in about Rp900 billion of budget absorption per month. The trend of public kitchen development, according to Dadan, is predicted to continue to rise. At the end of September, the number is estimated to reach 10,000. So, by mid-October, the absorbed budget amounts to Rp4 trillion.
The government is known to have earmarked Rp 71 trillion for the free nutritious meal program in 2025. President Prabowo Subianto also approved an additional Rp28 trillion this year
Previously, the Finance Ministry recorded that as of August 2025, the realization of free meal budget usage had only reached Rp13.2 trillion. On Friday, the absorbed budget had reached Rp19.3 trillion.
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