Grounded by Subsidies

Posted by AsiaViews | Jan 2, 2018 | 0 |

Tempo

23 Dec 2017
The government’s errors in reigning in its soaring energy subsidies can no longer be tolerated. A plan to transfer the subsidy on the three-kilogram LPG ‘melon’ cooking gas cylinders to Welfare Cards issued by the social welfare ministry from January 2018 must not be put off.

What is President Joko Widodo waiting for? He is not left with many options. The government’s finances are in a perilous state. The budget for financing development is also not being met. All that is now left for Mr. President is one of just two choices: first, to boost tax receipts, an option now proven impossible to do. Or try to trim back subsidies.

Under the 2017 State Budget (APBN), the ceiling for subsidies on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or elpiji was Rp20 trillion. Later, under the revised 2017 APBN, that number rose to Rp40.5 trillion. When drafting the 2018 Draft APBN, the same item only rose to Rp40.7 trillion. However, that should not yet be any reason to celebrate. Many oil experts say, given the trend for world oil and gas prices, that these subsidies are likely to rise sharply again.

The government’s messy management of its subsidy on these LPG ‘melons’ cannot be allowed to be left unquestioned. In fact, the LPG melons are not just enjoyed by the poor and those involved in micro enterprises, but also by middle income- and even beyond that- households, big restaurants, businesses involved in agriculture, farming, and even in laundry services. Why should they get spoiled? This program, initially fostering a conversion from kerosene to LPG for cooking, that previously contributed a saving to the State Budget has now become a heavy burden on it.

That mistake should have been fixed quickly. If the LPG subsidy for the poor were included in the Social Welfare Card, it would then be better targeted. On the card, it would only be necessary to add an allocation of three-kilogram LPG containers, for instance, three to four LPG cylinders per family per month. Such focused distribution could reduce LPG subsidy to just Rp15 trillion. By doing this, the drop in the number of households eligible for it would go down from the current 54.9 million to 26 million. This way, only poor households and 2.3 million microenterprises could then enjoy the subsidies on the LPG ‘melon’ cylinders.

Unfortunately, as of now, the ministry of social welfare, assigned to distribute the LPG subsidy, has only moved with the alacrity of a snail. It is still struggling with the verification and validation of the data on subsidy recipients. It argues that under the law it must verify all its data on social welfare recipients. In fact, the ministry of energy and state electricity company PLN already used similar data to reorganize electricity subsidies for this household group that uses only 900 volt-amperes.

President Jokowi must quickly intervene to overcome the ministry of social welfare’s tardiness. If the government allows it to carry on working as it has, it will simply run out of time. The subsidies that ought to get cut back at the start of 2018 could once again blow out of proportions.

This ministry has already demonstrated that its performance is below target. It had done the same thing with its non-cash food assistance program, where it was only able to collect the data for only 1.2 million households out of the around 15 million entitled.

This issue must not be allowed to drag out. The ministry’s misguided rhetoric in asking for more time for verification is unacceptable to anyone with common sense. Its slowness could be just accelerating the foundering of our economy.

(source:https://en.tempo.co/read/news/2017/12/23/314914309/Grounded-by-Subsidies)

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

Grounded by Subsidies