Jakarta. Indonesia is overhauling its national socioeconomic database to improve the targeting of government subsidies, including fuel, after discrepancies in welfare classifications have left some low-income households without assistance.

Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) is updating the National Single Socioeconomic Database (DTSEN), which the government uses to classify households into welfare deciles and determine eligibility for subsidies and social assistance.

The government hopes the database will be more accurate by next year, allowing it to better identify households entitled to government support.

“If there are one or two errors, those things usually happen in surveys. But I hope it will be more accurate next year,” Purbaya told reporters at the Finance Ministry in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The government is also preparing a system to potentially restrict the use of subsidized Pertalite gasoline based on household welfare deciles. Purbaya said the policy would depend on economic and social conditions as well as the completion of the database update.

“We are preparing the system. Once it is ready, we will implement it,” he said.

If the updated DTSEN is not available when the policy is introduced, authorities will handle individual cases on a case-by-case basis, Purbaya said.

The government plans to initially bar households in decile 10, the top 10% of households ranked by socioeconomic status, from buying the subsidized fuel Pertalite, which currently sells for Rp10,000 ($0.60) per liter. Purbaya estimates the plan could save around 10%, or Rp21 trillion ($1.2 billion), of its fuel subsidy budget.

The government is also considering expanding the restriction to decile 9, which would bring about 57.4 million people, or roughly 20% of Indonesia’s population, within the two highest socioeconomic groups.

More than Rp7 trillion for data update
Purbaya said the government had allocated more than Rp7 trillion ($395 million) to BPS for improving the DTSEN and conducting census-related activities.

The additional funding was provided after BPS requested more resources to improve data quality and carry out field updates, he said.

The government hopes the additional funding will produce a more accurate picture of household welfare and reduce errors in determining eligibility for subsidies and social assistance.

The issue has become more pressing as some Indonesians have reported changes in their welfare classifications that appear inconsistent with their actual economic circumstances.

Welfare data questioned
One such case is Indri Diyah, a 49-year-old widow and mother of three in Probolinggo, East Java, who earns a living selling crackers and tissues while riding an old bicycle around the city.

Indri was previously classified in welfare decile 2, but after a recent data update she was moved to deciles 6-10, causing the social assistance she had previously received to stop.

Indri said she learned about the change from a friend and later confirmed it through an official application. Her assistance, which she normally received in early August, was no longer available.

“I used to be in decile 2, but now they say I have been moved to deciles 6 to 10,” Indri said Wednesday.

She said she had repeatedly contacted the local social affairs office and village authorities but had yet to see her classification corrected.

Indri has supported her family since her husband died in 2008. She currently lives in a low-cost rental apartment in Probolinggo and said her daily income from selling crackers and tissues is barely enough to cover basic expenses and rent.

“I hope my data can be checked again against my actual circumstances,” she said.

BPS Probolinggo head Joko Santoso said changes in a person’s welfare classification can occur when information from different government agencies is updated.

BPS is responsible for processing and managing data, while information can come from multiple ministries and government institutions, he said.

“Changes in data from different sources can affect a person’s decile. Deciles can change, either upward or downward,” Joko said.

He said welfare classifications are not determined solely by a person’s visible income or daily occupation. Instead, the government uses socioeconomic information collected from multiple sources to calculate household welfare.

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