Jakarta. Deputy House Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad on Tuesday defended the controversial Rp 50 million ($3,000) monthly housing allowance for lawmakers, clarifying that the benefit is only disbursed for one year, a day after a protest against the policy descended into chaos.

Dasco said each lawmaker receives a total of Rp 600 million from October 2024 to October 2025, which is intended to cover rent costs throughout their five-year term ending in 2029.

“Lawmakers receive Rp 50 million a month from October 2024 until October 2025. The money is meant to pay for housing contracts during the five-year term. After October 2025, the allowance will no longer be given,” Dasco told reporters at the parliament complex in Jakarta.

The statement came a day after a mass protest outside the House of Representatives (DPR) descended into riots. Thousands of students, workers, and activists rallied against the allowance and broader lawmaker pay hikes, which critics say are tone-deaf with ordinary Indonesians struggling under high living costs.

Protesters clashed with police as they attempted to breach barricades around the parliament complex. Authorities deployed tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd, detaining 312 demonstrators, including 205 minors.

Public policy expert Achmad Nur Hidayat said the allowance is nearly ten times the highest regional minimum wage and up to twenty times the minimum wage in poorer areas. Combined with salaries and other benefits, lawmakers’ monthly earnings can exceed Rp 100 million ($6,134).

“An income package of up to Rp 100 million per month deeply hurts the public’s sense of fairness,” Achmad told BeritaSatu TV recently. “Just for housing allowances alone, covering 575 lawmakers over a five-year term, the state must spend Rp 1.73 trillion ($106 million).”

House Speaker Puan Maharani earlier defended the allowance, saying it reflected Jakarta’s rental market after lawmakers lost access to state housing in South Jakarta’s Kalibata complex.

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