To increase the resilience of MSMEs, the government prepares productive social assistance

Detiktoday.com – Until now, various National Economic Recovery (PEN) programs for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), such as interest subsidies, tax incentives, and working capital credit have only been absorbed 26.4%. For this reason, the Government has prepared an additional program, namely productive social assistance (bansos).

“Currently we are also preparing various additional programs because the absorption of some (programs for MSMEs) still needs to be improved, such as the provision of what is called productive social assistance,” said Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani Indrawati at the #JagaUMKM Mutual Cooperation Webinar. Indonesia: Government Stimulus to Strengthen MSMEs, organized by the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs in collaboration with PT Unilever Indonesia and Katadata on Tuesday (11/08).

The minister explained that the government is currently identifying 9 million very small business actors to be given productive social assistance of Rp. 2.4 million. In addition, the government will also provide credit assistance of IDR 2 million for ultra-micro entrepreneurs without interest. Minister of Finance hopes that this additional assistance can increase the resilience of business actors, especially those who do not have access to banking (unbankable).

“That is what the Government is doing to be able to further increase the resilience of very small businesses, ultra-micro businesses, and micro businesses that are not yet bankable,” explained the Minister.

Furthermore, the Minister of Finance said that the majority of aid recipients were women. According to the Minister of Finance, the gender dimension in providing assistance is very important because it can provide a multiplier effect on his family.

“By design, we are targeting this policy that the beneficiaries are women. This is because they can provide multiplier benefits to their families, especially their children, so that their poor families can still get good health and education facilities, “said the Minister of Finance.

On this occasion, the Minister of Finance emphasized that in the distribution of social assistance, the main challenge is data that is not updated. However, the government cannot wait for the data to be verified. For MSMEs, the government uses existing data plus existing data in banks with accounts of less than Rp1-2 million.

“When designing the program, we also consulted (with the BPK) so that later it does not become a problem in terms of accountability, because all of this must be accounted for. Indeed, the trade off between speed and accuracy when the data raw materials are not complete is a very challenging one for all of us, “said the Minister.