Jakarta. Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa recently floated a plan to reallocate the unspent funds for the budget-heavy free meal rollout, a proposal backed by the newly appointed Presidential Chief of Staff Muhammad Qodari.

In Friday's press conference, Purbaya revealed he was open to shifting the program’s budget for other purposes as the funds absorption remains sluggish. Since the beginning of the year, Indonesia has been dishing out government-aided meals to schoolchildren and expectant mothers for better human capital development.

As of August, the government had only spent approximately Rp 13.2 trillion ($792.9 million) for this nationwide meal rollout. This is a tiny portion of the program’s actual annual budget, which hits a whopping Rp 71 trillion for the entirety of 2025.

“We will make calculations by the end of October. We will see if the funds absorption falls below our expectations, and we will distribute the money to other places, be it to reduce our deficit or debt. This way, there is no unspent cash in ministries and government bodies,” Purbaya said at the time.

Purbaya also plans to send a team to the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) to see what the Finance Ministry can do to expedite the spending. BGN is the agency responsible for overseeing the meal rollout. 

“Things like this will actually expedite the absorption. Lack of sanctions will only create complacency [at BGN]. This is a carrot and stick. If the funds get quickly absorbed, we might add their budget, although that might be impossible. If not, we will reallocate the funds,” Purbaya said.

A day later, Qodari admitted that he would be on board with the budget reallocation.

“President Prabowo Subianto is all about [budget] efficiency and reallocation,” Qodari told the press on the margins of the 2025 DGVeRS forum.

“I would do the same thing if I were Mr. Purbaya. Imagine if 90 [percent] of the budget fails to get absorbed, it’d be best to distribute it to other programs. This way, we can drive the economy and improve people’s welfare. That would be the right thing to do, it's just that we need to finish the technical aspects."

The government aims to feed 82.9 million students, expectant mothers, and toddlers by the end of this year. Purbaya's announcement came not long after BGN revealed that they would likely get far more money to spend for 2026, reaching Rp 268 trillion. This is far beyond the earlier cap of Rp 217.8 trillion.

Zero Tolerance for Accidents

Prabowo’s signature program is not only getting attention for its huge budget. Many students have fallen sick from food poisoning in the program, originally intended to improve their nutritional intake.

BGN is currently grappling with food poisoning cases in Central Sulawesi's Banggai Islands regency. As many as 335 people had to be rushed to the hospital since September 17; some 34 patients remain hospitalized as of writing. The agency has partnered with the police force to launch a probe into the incident. According to Qodari, the meal program should have “zero tolerance for accidents”.

“This is a wake-up call to make improvements as soon as possible. It’d be worrisome if such accidents took place in remote areas, as their healthcare facilities are not as good as those in the cities. But the bottom line is that we will fix this,” Qodari said.

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