Chromebook Prices in Regional Areas Reach 6-7 Million Rupiah per Unit, Prosecutor: Wow!

JAKARTA — Several civil servants from the Education and Culture Department in regional government offices have stated that the price of a single Chromebook laptop purchased during Nadiem Makarim’s tenure reached between 6 to 7 million rupiah per unit.

This information was conveyed by witnesses during the continuation of a hearing in the alleged corruption case concerning Chromebook laptop procurement, with former Education, Culture, Research and Technology Minister Nadiem Makarim as the defendant.

Asep Muzakir, a civil servant at the Education and Culture Department of Banten Provincial Government, described the Chromebook laptop procurement in 2021-2022. At that time, he served as the Technical Implementation Officer for procurement using Special Allocation Funds (DAK).

“In 2022, the budget was approximately 12 billion rupiah,” Asep stated during the hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court on Monday (9 March 2026).

In 2022, 1,350 Chromebook units were purchased. Meanwhile, in 2021, the government budgeted 2.5 billion rupiah, though Asep could not recall how many laptops were purchased.

Procurement was conducted through the e-catalogue system, and at that time Asep selected products offered by reseller company Samafitro with a listed selling price of 7.6 million rupiah per unit. Through the e-catalogue, Asep conducted negotiations. The unit price decreased after negotiation to 7,395,000 rupiah.

“Wow! 7,395,000 rupiah, negotiation result,” one prosecutor remarked.

The prosecutor then raised the matter of Axioo’s statement in a previous hearing that the manufacturer’s cost of goods sold (COGS) was 4.1 million rupiah after value-added tax. However, manufacturers are not permitted to sell directly through the e-catalogue or to the market. Indonesian trading regulations require manufacturers to sell first to distributors and resellers. The e-catalogue price is also not accessible to manufacturers but must go through resellers, effectively a third party in the supply chain.