Our legislature budget is among the most expensive in its class, specifically for countries with a comparable Gross National Income (GNI) or per capita income for 2024, which was US$4,000-5,000 per year. Data from the House itself shows that in 2024, the total budget requested from the government for the current year was $663 million, approximately Rp 10 trillion per year. Meanwhile, other countries with similar levels of economic development in the immediate region, such as Vietnam and the Philippines, have legislature budgets ranging from $150-300 million per year.

If we use another comparison basis of total population (to illustrate the degree of representation), we are not far behind in this picture. The People's Republic of China (PRC), with a population of over 1 billion, has a legislature budget of just under $200 million annually, a third of ours, while its GNI per capita is already more than three times Indonesia's. Meanwhile, India, Nigeria and Pakistan, whose populations are roughly equivalent to Indonesia's, each have an annual legislature budget of only around $50-300 million. 

Furthermore, if we use the perspective of the regional minimum wage multiple in each country, our legislature budget is equivalent to Rp 18.7 billion per year for each member, or 288 times the average Regional Minimum Wage in Indonesia, which is currently Rp 5.4 million per month. This multiplier is far greater than that of China, whose GNI per capita is already above $12,000 per year and whose population is 1.4 billion, and Vietnam, which are only 19 and 185 times the lowest wage, respectively. From an economic ethical or normative economic perspective, this is disturbing.

Meanwhile, in terms of productivity, our 580 House members remain inferior to several countries with lower legislature budgets.

India passed approximately 331 laws in the five-year period from 2019 to 2024, according to data from the Geneva-based International Parliamentary Union (IPU). This is despite its annual budget being just under $300 million. Poland and Nigeria produced 640 and 331 laws, respectively, in the same period. Our House produced only 225 laws, equivalent to an average of 45 laws per year. If we compare the productivity ratios of legislative members in these countries with ours, we get a figure of 4 for Poland, 0.11 for Nigeria, and 0.07 for Indonesia. 

This reveals that our legislature is relatively unproductive and expensive. This is certainly a cost to the people, considering legislatures are funded by tax money, the use and allocation of which is approved jointly by the government and the House.