Institute for Development of Economics and Finance: Companies Cannot Charge Their Employees For The Cost Of The COVID-19 Vaccine

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Research institute for economic studies at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) Rusli Abdullah said that companies should not charge their employees for the COVID-19 vaccine independently.

"The vaccine is free of charge, in principle, the vaccine is a public good or free", said Rusli Abdullah as quoted by Antara, Thursday, February 18.

Nevertheless, he said companies could apply incentives to the government for implementing vaccinations independently.

"It could be in the form of fiscal incentives. In the midst of a pandemic, companies need incentives from the government to run their businesses", he said.

Rusli also said that the implementation of independent vaccination by companies can accelerate the national vaccination program. The government is targeting at least 182 million people or 70 percent of the total population to be injected with the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) researcher Siti Alifah Dina said that the independent vaccination program initiated by a number of parties must also pay close attention to the aspect of protecting personal data in its data collection.

"This is very important to do because some of the data collected are sensitive and will have a negative impact if it is not protected. The leakage of consumer personal data from a marketplace and the suspicion that this data was traded on the black market last year is certainly still fresh in the mind", said Siti Alifah Dina.

She explained that the data collection carried out by parties supporting independent vaccination was carried out in a survey that required data filling, starting from the National Identity Number (NIK), date of birth, complete address, and also cellphone number.

"Similar information from employees' family members must also be filled in and completed, for example, name, place of birth date, and family relationship. The vulnerability of this information line certainly needs to be protected and guaranteed its confidentiality", he said.