Apindo: New Burden Tapera Deposit Contributions For Workers And Entrepreneurs

Chairman of the National Leadership Council of the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) for the period 2023-2028 Shinta Widjaja Kamdani. BETWEEN PHOTOs/Zabur Karuru/foc/aa.

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) officially rejects the implementation of Government Regulation (PP) Number 21 of 2024 concerning Amendments to Government Regulation Number 25 of 2020 concerning the Implementation of Public Housing Savings (Tapera).

"Since the emergence of Law no. 4 of 2016 concerning Apindo's Public Housing Savings has firmly rejected the enactment of the law," said Apindo Chairman Shinta Kamdani as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, May 28.

Shinta said Apindo had conducted a number of discussions, coordinated, and sent letters to the President regarding Tapera.

In line with Apindo, the Labor Union / Worker also rejected the implementation of the Tapera program. The Tapera program is considered burdensome for the burden of contributions, both in terms of business actors and workers / laborers.

Shinta explained that Apindo basically supports the welfare of workers with the availability of housing for workers.

However, he assessed that the PP, which was only ratified on May 20, 2024, duplicated the previous program, namely the Benefits of Additional Service (MLT) for workers housing for BP Jamsostek, participants in the Old Age Security (JHT) program.

"The additional burden for workers is 2.5 percent and employers is 0.5 percent of salaries that are not needed because they can utilize funding sources from BPJS Ketenagakerjaan funds," he explained.

According to Apindo's view, the government should be expected to optimize BPJS Ketenagakerjaan funds more, where according to PP a maximum of 30 percent or Rp138 trillion, JHT assets of 460 trillion can be used for the MLT Worker housing program.

Apindo assesses that the latest Tapera rules are increasing new burdens, both for employers and workers.

Currently, the levy burden that has been borne by the employer is 18.24-19.74 percent of the worker's income with details, namely Employment Social Security, namely Old Age Security 3.7 percent; Death Security 0.3 percent; Work Accident Insurance 0.24-1.74 percent; and Pension Security 2 percent.

Then, the employer also pays Social Health Security, namely 4 percent Health Insurance. Furthermore, there is a Severance Pay Reserve in accordance with PSAK (Financial Accounting Standard Statement) of around 8 percent.

"This burden is getting heavier with the depreciation of the rupiah and the weakening of market demand," said Shinta.

Apindo itself has conducted socialization to developers through the DPP Real Estate Indonesia (REI) and also initiated a Kick Off for signing cooperation between BPJS Ketenagakerjaan and 2 Himbara Banks (BTN and BNI) as well as 4 Banks (Asbanda Regional Development Bank Association), namely Bank Jabar, Central Java, Bali, and Aceh in order to expand the benefits of the MLT Worker Housing program.

Shinta said that if the government would continue to apply Tapera contributions, Apindo hoped that the funds collected from ASN, TNI, Polri would be applied to the full benefits of government control.

"If the evaluation results are good in terms of management, then it is further studied to expand this scope to the private sector," he said.