Indonesia has announced a number of changes to its free nutritious meals program, a flagship policy of President Prabowo Subianto’s administration, to reduce pressure on the government budget.
Agustina Arumsari, deputy director of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN), which administers the multibillion-dollar program, said Thursday evening that the program would be suspended during the upcoming school holidays, from June 22 to July 13, as well as during all upcoming school holidays, Reuters reported.
The changes were about “fiscal efficiency” and would also “ensure that every resource held by the state truly provides optimal benefits to groups in need”, she added.
The agency will also stop funding meals for approximately 39,000 students in 76 schools located in areas deemed to have the economic capacity to meet nutritional needs, and shift that capacity to students in remote areas. The government plans to propose a reduction in the budget allocated to the program for 2027.
“We think this figure is too high,” Arumsari said, Reuters reported. “With the budget we have, we can reduce it and make it more efficient. »
Suspending service during school holidays is expected to save the BGN more than 3 trillion rupiah ($168 million) over the upcoming holiday period, and Agustina added that the disruption would give officials a chance to reevaluate the program and “ensure that the free nutritious meal program is more precisely targeted.”
The Free Nutritious Meals Program, known by its Indonesian acronym MBG, was among Prabowo’s main campaign promises during the 2024 presidential election. Its goal is to provide free meals to 83 million children and pregnant women across Indonesia, with the aim of preventing stunting due to poor nutrition. As the BGN said in a recent post on its Facebook page, “bBy providing good, balanced nutrition, we are building a strong foundation for this next generation to become healthy, intelligent and resilient individuals.
Since its inception, many have questioned the high cost of the program. The program cost 75 trillion rupees ($4.24 billion) in the year to April 30, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said last month. The government is currently budgeting 268 trillion rupiah ($15.1 billion) for the program for 2026.
These questions have only become more acute since Iran’s March closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which cost the government billions of dollars in subsidies intended to protect Indonesian consumers from the full impact of rising global oil prices.
The program has also been hampered by several incidents of food poisoning and allegations of corruption. Indeed, the changes announced late last week are a direct response to the dismissal and arrest earlier this month of former BGN chief Dadan Hindayana, accused of causing losses to the state and enriching himself in connection with his administration of the MBG program. Two deputy directors of the BGN were also dismissed and arrested.
All of these problems have prompted calls in some quarters for the government to scrap the program altogether. Earlier this month, hundreds of protesters in Jakarta staged a demonstration calling for the reversal of government policies that they said could “bankrupt the country.” Among these was the MBG program.
As things stand, the Prabowo administration is unlikely to pay its critics a compliment by acceding to their demands. But it is likely that he will make additional efforts to streamline the MBG program and target it to populations with more real needs before Prabowo’s term ends in 2029.