680 thousand rice cookers will be distributed free of charge to the public this year. This was confirmed by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM). The distribution of rice cookers is a government priority program in 2023.
Even though it is a priority program, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif in a working meeting with Commission VII DPR RI, Thursday (2/2), said that this plan is still being discussed internally in the government for details on the total budget.
The purpose of this rice cooker distribution program is to support the use of clean energy, increase electricity consumption per capita, and save cooking costs for the community.
As previously reported, Edy Pratiknyo, the Sub-Coordinator of Facilitation of Commercial Relations for Electricity Business, Directorate of Electricity Business Development, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said that the government was currently discussing this policy.
“This discussion has not yet been published on e-cooking assistance or electric rice cookers,” said Edy at the Public Discussion Forum, last Friday (25/11).
Edy said that the assistance for electric rice cookers (BPNL) would be distributed throughout Indonesia through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources 2023 APBN.
In his presentation, he explained that the rice cooker program does not require additional power and the value of the program package is IDR 500,000 per beneficiary family (KPM). The list of people receiving this assistance will refer to data from the Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos).
In another hand, INDEF Senior Economist Faisal Basri said the discourse of distributing 680 thousand rice cookers for free to increase the electrification ratio in Indonesia was like pushing people into the abyss.
He said that almost all households with 450 VA electricity would not be able to withstand a rice cooker with a power of 200 watts to 300 watts. Even if its use is forced, there needs to be reduced use of other electronic goods.
In addition, it seems that the community is encouraged to increase the power from 450 VA to 1,200 VA. In this way, the increase in the cost of using electricity for the poor is inevitable.
In addition, this discourse is claimed to support President Jokowi’s program in utilizing clean energy that can be felt directly by the community.
The discourse on distributing rice cookers was initially launched by Edy Pratiknyo, the Sub-coordinator of Facilitation of Commercial Relations for Electricity Businesses, Directorate of Electricity Business Development, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, at the DPR, Friday (25/11).
He said that the assistance for electric rice cookers (BPNL) would be distributed throughout Indonesia through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources 2023 APBN.
As previously reported, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources allocated IDR 2.5 trillion or as much as 45.4% of the IDR 5.5 trillion budget ceiling in 2023 for infrastructure activities. These infrastructure activities include the construction of the Cirebon-Semarang gas pipeline and the rice cooker program as incentives for converting electric vehicles.
