Indonesia disburses less than 3% of budget for Prabowo's flagship free meals programme
JAKARTA, June 17 (Reuters) - Indonesia spent 4.4 trillion rupiah ($270.35 million) by June 12 on President Prabowo Subianto's flagship programme to give students and expectant mothers free meals, just 2.6% of this year's allocation, finance ministry data showed on Tuesday.
Launched in January, the programme has faced challenges, including concerns in financial markets about the government's tight budgetary constraints as well as cases of food poisoning in some regions.
The programme had reached around 4.9 million recipients by June 12, served by 1,716 catering units, deputy finance minister Suahasil Nazara told a press conference.
This year's total budget for the programme is 171 trillion rupiah ($10.51 billion), which assumes that authorities are gradually expanding outreach to eventually serve 82.9 million recipients from 32,000 catering units by the end of the year.
The programme was Prabowo's key campaign promise during the 2014 presidential election. During rallies, Prabowo estimated the programme would cost 450 trillion rupiah per year when fully implemented.
($1 = 16,275 rupiah)
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