BPJS Health Membership Card, now a must for land transactions in Indonesia

30 March 2022

Indonesia’s Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency (the Minister of Agrarian Affairs) has issued a nationwide circular letter addressed to all land offices in Indonesia (Letter No. HR.02/153-400/II/2022 dated 14 February 2022) (“Circular”).

According to the Circular, applicants for national land office registration services for any land title transfer, including title transfer for an apartment following its sale and purchase, are now required to file a copy of their membership card evidencing active participation in the national health security program (Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial Kesehatan or “BPJS Health”). This new filing requirement came into effect on 1 March 2022 (according to Letter No.: HR.02/164-400/II/2022 dated 16 February 2022).

Since the new requirement under the Circular involves the filing of a copy of the applicant’s BPJS Health membership, it may be reasonable to assume that the Circular is directed only at residents in Indonesia. However, representatives of the national land office and various land deed officials Soemadipradja & Taher, our network firm in Indonesia, spoke to about this issue were unable to give a definitive answer as to whether corporate land ownership title transfers may also be caught by the Circular, despite BPJS Health membership only being available to individuals. Given the newness of the Circular and the lack of practice, it remains to be seen whether corporate landowners will also be impacted by mthe Circular. 

The Circular is preceded by Presidential Instruction No.1 of 2022 on the Optimisation of the National Health Security Program, which broadly instructs the Minister of Agrarian Affairs to ensure that any applicant for land title transfer registration (due to a sale and purchase) is enrolled in BPJS Health.

This is an extract of an article by Soemadipradja & Taher, our network firm in Indonesia. To read the full article from the Soemadipradja & Taher website www.soemath.com, please click here.