{"id":23548,"date":"2026-07-22T19:19:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/indonesia-cuts-more-than-us2b-in-free-meal-budget\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T19:19:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:19:50","slug":"indonesia-cuts-more-than-us2b-in-free-meal-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/indonesia-cuts-more-than-us2b-in-free-meal-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Indonesia cuts more than US$2b in free meal budget"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/div>\n

JAKARTA, July 22 — Indonesia has further cut the budget of President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meal programme by more than US$2 billion (RM8.18 billion), officials said, in a move expected to reduce access to the scheme.<\/p>\n

The multi-billion dollar meal programme is one of Prabowo’s signature policies, but its implementation has been marred with mass poisonings and corruption.<\/p>\n

The budget for the programme for this year has been cut from 268 trillion rupiah (RM61.2 billion) to 229 trillion rupiah, the National Nutrition Agency secretary Lili Khamiliyah told a news conference yesterday.<\/p>\n

Indonesia originally allocated 335 trillion rupiah for the programme this year, but it had been reduced following several budget-saving measures.<\/p>\n

Spokeswoman Agustina Arumsari said the figure was provisional, adding further cuts could come as the agency reviewed the programme’s implementation.<\/p>\n

“We were given a month by the president to improve the management (of the programme),” she said.<\/p>\n

News :<\/span><div>12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers<\/div><\/span><\/a><\/div>

“What is clear is that there will be a reduction in beneficiaries. The president said he no longer targets certain numbers but (wants) to improve quality, ensure it’s on target and prevent further poisonings.”<\/p>\n

The programme currently serves some 62.7 million recipients, said Agustina, who did not detail how many people would be impacted by the latest cut.<\/p>\n

Yesterday’s announcement was the latest reduction to the scheme.<\/p>\n

The agency said last month that the free meal scheme was suspended during school holidays, which was expected to save more than three trillion rupiah.<\/p>\n

In March, the agency cut the distribution of meals from six days a week to five, aiming to save up to 40 trillion rupiah as the country sought to cushion the economic impact from the Middle East war.<\/p>\n

The agency’s head Nanik Sudaryati Deyang announced on Facebook on Wednesday that she was stepping down from her position, citing health reasons.<\/p>\n

News :<\/span>Migrant acquitted in first trial over US border military zones<\/span><\/a><\/div>

Prabowo previously fired Nanik’s predecessor Dadan Hindayana and two deputies, who have since been accused of “crimes in management” of the agency.<\/p>\n

The free meal scheme had an original goal of reaching at least 82.9 million children and pregnant and breastfeeding women — nearly one-third of the country’s population.<\/p>\n

More than 20 per cent of children in Indonesia are affected by stunting caused by severe malnutrition. — AFP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Indonesia cuts more than US$2b in free meal budget<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JAKARTA, July 22 — Indonesia has further cut the budget of President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meal programme by more than US$2 billion (RM8.18 billion), officials said, in a move expected to reduce access to the scheme. The multi-billion dollar meal programme is one of Prabowo’s signature policies, but its implementation has been marred with…<\/p>\n

Read More “Indonesia cuts more than US$2b in free meal budget”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}