JAKARTA — Following a public outcry, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is annulling the regulation that entitles legislators and other state officials to 211 million rupiah (S$22,000) each as down payment for a car.

“The President has instructed the Cabinet … to revoke the regulation that allows additional funding for state officials’ car down payment,” State Secretary Pratikno said yesterday. “We will shortly issue a presidential decree that cancels the previous regulation.”

According to Mr Pratikno, the government and several party leaders at the House of Representatives have agreed to abrogate the regulation because it is not in keeping with the people’s economic condition.

“The President is now more confident about rescinding the regulation after the party leaders stated their agreement,” Mr Pratikno explained.

The annulment of the regulation followed Mr Widodo’s earlier comments denouncing the regulation, which he had signed without realising what he had approved.

“This isn’t the right time” for approving higher allowances, Mr Widodo said. “First, because of the economic situation; second, from the perspective of justice; and third, we should be reducing fuel consumption. Let me check this issue again.”

Mr Widodo also said that he would not have signed the document had he known what it was.

“I can’t possibly know about everything 100 per cent,” he told reporters on Sunday, in response to mounting public outcry over what was widely seen as a wasteful use of public funds.

“It’s impossible for me to check one by one, each page (of documents) that I have to sign. If there are already five to 10 signatures on a page, should I check it again?

“These sort of things should be under the supervision of ministries,” he added, saying ministries should screen planned expenditures to determine their impact on the country.

Mr Yuddy Chrisnandi, the Minister for State Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms, had earlier argued against Mr Widodo, saying 158.8 billion rupiah was a “small” chunk of the more than 2,000 trillion rupiah state budget. “It’s approximately 0.0078 per cent of the 2,039 trillion rupiah state budget this year,” Mr Chrisnandi said.

“From a legal perspective, there’s no problem (with the allowance). As long as facilities provided to state officials can be accounted for and are clearly used to aid in the effectiveness of their work, surely the issue must be dealt with wisely and proportionally,” Mr Chrisnandi said.

The brouhaha stemmed from a letter dated Jan 5 from Mr Setya Novanto, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Cabinet Secretariat, requesting a revision to the allowance for down payments for vehicles for 753 state officials — consisting of all 560 House members, 132 members of the Regional Representatives Council, 40 Supreme Court justices, nine Constitutional Court justices, seven Judicial Commission members and five Supreme Audit Agency leaders.

Their predecessors received 116.5 million rupiah each, under a 2010 presidential regulation signed by then-President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Mr Novanto’s letter sought an increase to 250 million rupiah, but after an evaluation by Cabinet Secretary Andi Widjajanto and later Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, the final amount approved was 210.89 million rupiah per official — or a total of 158.8 billion rupiah from the state budget to allow these public officials, many of whom, like Mr Novanto, are already provided with cars as part of their office, to make a down payment on a new car.

The final regulation was signed by Mr Widodo on March 20.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency, or Fitra, was among the groups critical of the allocation.

Fitra’s advocation coordinator, Mr Apung Widadi, said in a written statement on Sunday that “Mr Widodo’s policy defies his vision to develop good public transportation. This down payment facility is another encouragement to the public to continue to purchase cars”.

Before the announcement that the regulation was going to be annulled, Mr Ahmad Redi, a lecturer with Tarumanegara University’s School of Law in Jakarta, had criticised the down payment facility as proof of the government’s “insensitivity” toward the growing socioeconomic divide in Indonesia, exacerbated by the impact of an end to fuel subsidies at the start of the year.

“The government should have paid more attention to the public’s sense of justice. The down payment facility is not an urgent matter, especially when people are experiencing a heavier (financial) burden now because of the fuel price hike,” Mr Redi said. “It would be better for the facility to be scrapped,” he added. The JAKARTA GLOBE