REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The government regulation (PP) on old-age benefits (JHT) is now embroiled in controversy due to alleged lack of publicity, according to a legislator.

"Government Regulation No. 46/2015 on old-age benefits was signed a day before the inauguration of the Workers Social Security Management Agency (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan). It is impossible for the institution to have promoted the regulation to the public and to all relevant parties in merely a day," Rieke Diah Pitaloka, a member of Commission IX of the House of Representatives, said here on Monday.

She added that various sides, including workers, employers and legislators, had yet to be made aware of the details of PP No. 46/2015 on old-age benefits.

Pitaloka, who is a politician of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, stated that three regulations on technical guidance for the implementation of PP No. 46/2015 should have been issued before the launch of the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan.

Apart from the PP on JHT, the legislator believes that the government should have issued other PPs on life insurance, occupational accident insurance, and pension insurance.

She also expressed her rejection of the commercialization of social insurance for workers in the country.

Moreover, it was reported that a new regulation on the withdrawal of the JHT funds from the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan was rejected by the public, according to Desmarita Murni, the communications director of the Indonesian chapter of Change.org.

In less than a day, a petition uploaded to that effect by the online media garnered support from thousands of people, Murni pointed out on Thursday, July 2.

"In less than 24 hours, at least 37 thousand netizens lent their support to the rejection of the new regulation. This number will continue to increase," Murni affirmed.

Furthermore, Vice President Jusuf Kalla noted that the government was drafting a transitional regulation regarding the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, to resolve the controversy over the withdrawal of the scheme on funds for old-age benefits.

"We are drafting a transitional regulation," Kalla told reporters at the Vice Presidential Office on Friday.

He added that the government only implemented regulations and that any objection from others would have to be addressed by the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan and relevant ministries.

In addition, the government has agreed to find a solution to the problem, including the possibility of revising the requirement in the PP on the withdrawal of JHT funds from the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan.

Under Government Regulation No. 46/2015 on the withdrawal of funding for old-age benefits , subscribers of the JHT scheme can withdraw their pension funds only after 10 years of enrollment in the program, as opposed to the five-year minimum period mandated by the 1992 Social Security Law, the basis for the old social security programs.

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