While the government intensifies its campaign for budget austerity, it has revealed that it has given a luxury retirement house to former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The 700-square-meter mansion inside a business quarter in Mega Kuningan in South Jakarta was handed over last week. The mansion is reportedly equipped with an elevator even though it is only a two-story building.

The State Secretariat has not disclosed the price of the house, but according to property websites, the price for a 600-square-meter plot of land in the upscale area in the heart of the city is tagged at around Rp 60 billion (US$4.6 million).

Many have criticized the purchase at a time when the government has made cuts in its spending to reduce the budget deficit.

Yudhoyono prepared for a comfortable retirement in the final few months of his presidency. Four months before his tenure concluded in October 2014, he signed a new presidential regulation giving former presidents and vice presidents unlimited access to state funds to pay for private residences.

A previous regulation set a maximum of Rp 20 billion for private residences for former presidents and vice presidents, but the decree that Yudhoyono signed canceled the price limit to buy retirement property.

The new regulations also give a mandate to the government to cover other expenses such as taxes related to the purchase of houses.

Dipo Alam, a former Cabinet secretary in the Yudhoyono administration, tried to quell criticisms of Yudhoyono, saying that in June 2014, the former president had to sign the new regulation in order to accommodate demands from former vice president Jusuf Kalla, now back in his former position in the current administration, who at that time wanted to buy an expensive house in Brawijaya, an affluent area of South Jakarta.

On Sunday, Democratic Party executive and former minister Syarief Hasan said he was surprised to learn that the public was questioning the government’s decision to purchase the house for Yudhoyono. Syarif contends that it is right that former presidents get a retirement house from the state.

Syarief confirmed that the price of the house was more than Rp 20 billion but he refused to reveal the exact price, saying that “if you want to find a house with that kind of size for Rp 20 billion then you will be able to find it outside Jakarta’’.

“The house has been given [to Yudhoyono] as far as I know, but [Yudhoyono] has not moved in because it is not yet fully furnished,” Syarief said.

Dipo said he could not remember the exact price of the house.

He also did not answer when questioned about whether it was President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo or Yudhoyono who chose the property. “There is no problem about the house because it has a strong legal basis,” Dipo said.

The Indonesia Budget Center (IBC) called on Jokowi to review the 2014 presidential regulation signed by Yudhoyono, adding that Rp 20 billion was more enough to buy a luxury house in Jakarta.

“Whether a former president can get a house from the state or not is not an issue here because there is a legal basis for it. The only problem is whether there should be price limit for it. The timing is sensitive because, as we know, the government is currently launching a budget efficiency campaign,” IBC researcher Roy Salam said.

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