TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Chair of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) Dadan Hidayana said the budget for the free nutritious meal (MBG) program was cut by 0.2845 percent. Initially, BGN received a budget of Rp71 trillion to realize the free nutritious meal program in 2025.

"The budget, which was initially Rp71 trillion, was then reduced by Rp200.2 billion," said Dadan when met after holding a closed working meeting with Commission IX of the DPR at the Parliament Complex, Jakarta, on Wednesday evening, February 12, 2025. Previously, BGN was included in the Ministries or Institutions that were not affected by budget cuts.

However, in the end BGN was also affected by the policy. Dadan revealed the reason for the change in policy began when President Prabowo Subianto visited the BGN office. Prabowo, said Dadan, wanted BGN to carry out budget efficiency in the infrastructure land procurement sector, namely the Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG). "The President said that if you can borrow land, just borrow it. So there is a budget that can be made efficient related to land procurement," said Dadan. He also mentioned that some of the land that could be borrowed to build SPPG is land owned by other agencies such as ministries, regional governments and state-owned enterprises (BUMN).

Dadan also guaranteed that the MBG program will continue with a target of 82.9 million beneficiaries by 2025. He guaranteed that the budget cuts of Rp200.2 billion would not cut employee budgets.

Previously, President Prabowo Subianto made a number of budget cuts to ministries and institutions by issuing Presidential Instruction (Inpres) Number 1 of 2025 concerning Efficiency in Spending and Implementation of the 2025 State Budget and Regional Budget. The Inpres was issued by Prabowo on January 22.

Then, to follow up on the instruction, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati issued a circular letter Number S-37/MK.02/2025 dated January 24, 2025 concerning the Efficiency of K/L Spending in the Implementation of the 2025 State Budget. The letter stated that efficiency was targeted at 16 K/L spending such as office stationery, meetings, and education and training (diklat) with different percentage cuts.

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