The regulation provides further instruction for fund management body BP Tapera in collecting and organizing money for public housing intended for civil servants, military and police personnel, state-owned enterprise employees and private employees.

Formal workers and individuals with monthly salaries equal to or surpassing the minimum wage, including foreign workers living in Indonesia for at least six months, are required to participate in the program. Its purpose is to accelerate the government’s program to build 1 million houses a year. 

“The public housing savings program will require its participants to pay a monthly deposit that equals 3 percent of an employee’s monthly salary,” says Article 15 of the regulation as quoted by kompas.com.

Read also: Housing program exceeds 1 million target in 2018

The 3 percent payment is split between the employer and employee, with the employee paying 2.5 percent and the employer paying 0.5.

Tapera program contributions end when a participant reaches the age of 58. The participants can then draw their public housing savings after retirement.

BP Tapera will replace the Housing Savings Advisory Board for Civil Servants (Bapertarum-PNS), with the latter expected to hand over its assets totaling Rp 12.3 trillion (US$861 million) to the former. The government has injected Rp 2.5 trillion into BP Tapera so far.

Bapertarum-PNS has a total of 6.7 million participants, both active civil servants and retirees. (trn)

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