President Joko Widodo officially announced on Tuesday (31/3/2020) that the Indonesian state-owned electricity company PLN will provide free electricity for the next 3 months to 24 million households in the 450-volt ampere (VA) category. Not only that, it will also give 50% discounts to 7 million households in the 900 VA category in the same range of time. This is to ease economic shocks suffered by the lower-class income households impacted by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. 

Responding to this policy, Member of Commission XI of the House Puteri Anetta Komarudin appreciated the government for being responsive by providing stimulus to the lower-class income households. The free electricity policy for households in the 450 VA category and discounts for the 900 VA category will certainly be like music to the ears of the people. Moreover, it has been common knowledge that since everyone is encouraged to work from home, the consumption of electricity has increased. 

“Besides health, Covid-19 outbreak has also disrupted the economic activities significantly. The lower-middle class income households really need to be given these kinds of incentives and relief. I hope the stimuli provided by the government will be able to reduce the economic impact,” said Komarudin via short messages to Parlementaria, Tuesday (31/3/2020). 

The Golkar Party politician took notice that the Government through the Finance Ministry has so far allocated a total budget of 158,2 trillion rupiah for responsive economic policies to mitigate the Covid-19 outbreak. She also acknowledged various policies such as the Economic Stimulus Package Volume I, worth 10.3 trillion rupiah, Volume II, worth 22.9 trillion rupiah, to the widening budget deficit to 125 trillion rupiah. 

“What the Government and the Finance Ministry need to do right now is to ensure that the policies are implemented effectively. Every relaxation policy needs to be followed by concrete and binding follow-up actions, such as the preparation of mechanism or clear technical guidelines for the implementation of the policies, so that they will not cause public distress”, stated the legislator from the West Java VII constituency. 

Furthermore, Komarudin also stated that President Jokowi issued Presidential Instruction Number 4 of 2020 on Refocusing Activities, Budget Reallocation and Procurement of Goods and Services to Accelerate the Mitigation of Covid-19. In this connection, the government needs to pay attention to the continuity of the stimuli issued, because it is likely that the impact of Covid-19 outbreak will last long. 

“The method is to conduct a regular and gradual evaluations of the policies. It is intended to avoid the stimuli that have been issued not being used up all at once and to adjust them with the responses and the needs of the people in the next few months. Some policies for informal workers and MSMEs, such as relieving credit and credit installments, raising the amount of Non-Cash Food Aid (BPNT), scraping all requirements for importing several food commodities, accelerating the implementation of the pre-employment cards, and planning Unconditional Cash Transfer (BLT),” she explained.

Saving the economy, added Komarudin, is not only the focus of the Indonesian government, but also the focus of all governments around the world, as stated in the outcome of the Extraordinary Virtual G20 Leaders’ Summit last week. “One of the four outcomes of the Extraordinary G20 Summit focus on economic recovery. The government has to provide economic safeguard to workers, businessmen, especially medium-scale businesses, as well as all sectors affected by the situation,” she concluded. (alw/sf)