TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan revealed the estimation of the state budget (APBN) that will be spent to finance the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) program in March 2025.

"We estimate that in March the Free Nutritious Meals program might absorb a budget of Rp 1-2 trillion per month," said Zulhas when announcing the results of the coordination meeting for Free Nutritious Meals with the ministry officials at his office on Monday, March 3, 2025.

According to Zulhas, the estimated amount of Rp 1-2 trillion is greater than the budget that has been absorbed for Free Nutritious Meals in the previous months of February and January. However, Zulhas did not specify the amount of the APBN allocated by the government to support the operational aspects of Free Nutritious Meals in the first two months. "Why has it been small until now? Well, the budgeting matters have just been finalized," said Zulhas.

With the increasing target of beneficiaries for Free Nutritious Meals, aimed to reach 82.9 million people by the end of 2025, Zulhas mentioned that the government will prepare the supply chain of raw materials. He is optimistic that the need for food materials will sharply increase to meet the operational needs of Free Nutritious Meals. "If the beneficiaries reach 82.9 million people, it will require 4 million tons of rice. How about eggs, Sir? 5 million kilograms, right?" he said while confirming with the Head of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN).

Therefore, Zulhas revealed that inter-ministerial and institutional cooperation is necessary to coordinate the preparation of the requirements for the acceleration of achieving the Free Nutritious Meals target. The chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) mentioned that inter-regional needs for the supply of raw materials for Free Nutritious Meals have their own characteristics. In the near future, he also mentioned that the government will issue a special regulation for MBG in the form of a Presidential Regulation (Perpres) or Presidential Instruction (Inpres).

In the same agenda, the Head of BGN, Dadan Hindayana, stated that the current beneficiaries of Free Nutritious Meals have reached 2,050,000 people. The number of Nutrition Fulfillment Service Units (SPPG) currently in operation is 726 units. "So, in the next two weeks, we might already be serving more than 3 million beneficiaries throughout Indonesia. For 3 million beneficiaries, we allocate approximately 1 trillion per month," said Dadan.

Nabiila Azzahra contributed for this article.

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