Bapanas Says The President Approved Food Aid, With Rice Being Distributed For Six Months In 2025

President Prabowo Subianto has approved the distribution of 10 kilograms of rice aid to beneficiaries for six months in 2025. This approval was announced by Arief Prasetyo Adi, the Head of the National Food Agency (Bapanas). "Thank goodness, President Prabowo has authorized the rice aid for six months in 2025. So, it will start in January and February, with the remaining four months scheduled later," Arief said in a statement in Jakarta on Wednesday, December 1, 2025, as reported by Antaranews.

Arief explained that the decision to extend the rice aid allocation to six months was made during a Limited Meeting on December 30, 2024. The aim is to maintain balance in the supply chain. He also mentioned that the proposal for this extension came from Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan during the meeting.

"The government, along with Bulog, is ready to distribute a total of six months of aid, amounting to 960 thousand tons of rice to 16 million food aid recipients in 2025, as proposed by the Minister," Arief added. He noted that the rice aid program is part of an economic policy package to support low-income communities while ensuring supply chain stability.

"For the rice aid in 2025, the government is refining the database of beneficiaries, focusing on the lowest income groups and women who are heads of households, especially the poor and elderly," he stated.

Furthermore, the database for the 2025 rice aid recipients will utilize data from the Social Economic Registration (Regsosek) of the Ministry of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Agency of the Republic of Indonesia. "The details include 15.6 million beneficiaries from the lowest income groups and 400 thousand women heads of poor households and elderly individuals," he said.

Prabowo announced an increase in the value-added tax (VAT) from 11% to 12% specifically for luxury goods and services. He mentioned that the government is preparing stimulus packages worth Rp 38.6 trillion. One of these packages includes rice assistance for 16 million food aid recipients, providing 10 kilograms per month. Initially, this rice assistance was set for 2025 and was planned for only two months, January and February. However, during a meeting with Commission IV of the Indonesian House of Representatives on November 19, 2024, Head of Bapanas Arief proposed an additional budget of Rp 31 trillion for food aid distribution. "In the meeting on November 6, Commission IV asked us to break it down. We broke it down for six months for food aid," Arief stated, as seen on YouTube TV Parlemen.

Tag: Arief Prasetyo Adi Bapanas Prabowo Subianto