TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo today handed out direct cash assistance for cooking oil to traders at Angso Duo Market in Jambi City. President Jokowi said that he had ordered his staff to distribute all of the cash assistance—known as BLT for short—before Idul Fitri day next month.

"We hope that not just here, but all across our homeland, the cooking oil BLT can be distributed immediately. I have asked for it to be distributed before Eid, a week before Eid," he said on Thursday, April 7, as quoted from the Presidential Secretariat's Press, Media and Information Bureau.

Jokowi hoped that the cash assistance of Rp300,000 can help ease the burden of people from the lower class, especially since the prices of other staple goods continue to rise, following cooking oil.

"We hope that this can subsidize the community, especially street vendors who sell fried foods," he said.

During the same occasion, Jokowi also handed out Rp1.2 million of working capital assistance (BMK). To the receivers, the President asked for the money to be used as additional capital for their businesses.

The cooking oil cash assistance program is the government's latest policy in the face of the product's soaring prices and scarcity. While helpful to some, the policy reaps some criticism.

The government is deemed unable to control market prices —losing to the so-called cooking oil mafia. Some have also said that the BLT shows that the government of President Jokowi tends to make instant and uncreative policies.

Read: BPKN Recommends Cooking Oil Priced at Rp13,500 per Liter Again

Antara