Indonesia Considers Cutting Free Nutritious Meal Budget Below Rp200 Trillion

Indonesia may cut next year’s free nutritious meal budget below Rp200 trillion, as officials revisit the program’s beneficiary data and spending needs.

National Nutrition Agency head Sudaryono said the 2027 allocation remains open to change after a meeting with parliament. The government had previously set the budget at Rp240 trillion, but he said further reductions were possible after a new review of the program’s targets and requirements.

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It’s possible to be below Rp200 trillion.

“It’s possible to be below Rp200 trillion,” Sudaryono said. He added that the agency would discuss the figure with the finance minister, consult internally and recalculate the needs of the program.

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We’ll discuss it again with the Minister of Finance, and we’ll also discuss it internally, and we’ll recalculate it.

The agency has already carried out efficiency measures for the 2026 budget. After reviewing and updating beneficiary records, it reduced the allocation to about Rp229 trillion from a ceiling of Rp268 trillion. BGN said it found roughly 6 million duplicate beneficiaries, including students at Islamic boarding schools who also appeared in records as students at public schools.

The agency also found meal kitchens that had virtual accounts and beneficiary lists but had not begun operating. It withdrew the accounts from 414 kitchens, returning about Rp311 billion to the state treasury. BGN is also evaluating beneficiaries at elite private schools and says further savings could follow if it finds more data discrepancies or inactive program operations. Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has separately said the government was considering bringing the program below Rp200 trillion a year.

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I’ve spoken with the new Head of BGN. It seems possible to make the budget more efficient.