Jakarta. The Finance Ministry recently revealed that they had already paid around Rp32.13 trillion (almost $2 billion) in the so-called “13th-month salary” or bonuses for civil servants, soldiers, and police officers, as of June 7.

The money is also going to retired civil servants and military personnel. The Finance Ministry’s spokesperson Deni Surjantoro said about Rp13.08 trillion went to around 1.9 million people working in the central government, military and police force. The ministry paid Rp 6.47 trillion in bonuses for 862,034 civil servants, and another Rp 348 billion for 87,334 contract-based government employees. Around 472,277 police officers already got bonuses, totaling Rp 3.3 trillion. The same goes for 482,402 military personnel, with the 13th salary payments amounting to Rp 2.95 trillion.

“So we have paid off the bonuses for around 81.32 percent of the total 11,432 working groups. All 84 ministries and government agencies have submitted requests for the bonus payments,” Deni said.

Almost 3.5 million retirees have also received their 13th salary. The state-owned insurer Taspen had already disbursed Rp 9.82 trillion for retired government workers. Its military counterpart Asabri has also distributed Rp 1.34 trillion for 475,600 retired personnel. 

The Finance Ministry has also given sub-national governments Rp 7.98 trillion for them to relay to their workers. About 223 out of 542 sub-national governments have distributed their 13th month salaries. 

According to Febrio Nathan Kacaribu, the head of the ministry’s fiscal policy agency, said that the 13th salary -- alongside the religious holiday bonus locally known as THR -- can spur the country’s economic growth. 

“THR and the 13th salary clearly have a positive impact on public consumption and the national economic growth. This year, despite global circumstances, Indonesia remained resilient as our economy grew by above 5 percent. We are still even maintaining our estimates of a 5.2 percent growth [for this year],” Febrio said.