Electric Vehicle Incentives to Be Extended? Here’s What Purbaya Says

Electric Vehicle Incentives to Be Extended? Here’s What Purbaya Says

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa is considering options to extend electric vehicle incentives. He says incentives can be provided if their impact on the budget deficit remains controlled. ‘I’ll recalculate; if it’s good, we’ll give it,’ Purbaya said at a press conference on Friday, 6 March 2026. Purbaya explained that for now the government must still exercise caution regarding several pressures on the state budget that could widen the deficit. Including potential increases in energy subsidies and uncertainty in export performance that could be disrupted. ‘They could be given, but the deficit would widen, so we need to calculate the deficit impact carefully because there could also be pressure from exports that may be disrupted,’ he said. Therefore, the authorities will recalculate the impact of subsidising electric vehicles on the deficit. ‘So we will calculate how big the impact on the deficit is; if it’s not too large, then it’s okay,’ he added. Earlier in January, the Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita stated that the proposal on motor vehicle incentives had been submitted to the Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa. He also assured that the stimulus scheme proposed this time would no longer be general, but much more detailed than during the Covid-19 period. ‘Regarding the automotive incentives, the stimulus proposal that we have sent to the Finance Minister… there’s a bit of leakage, there are differences. Here we will apply, here what we propose is more detailed, more detailed than our Covid period, from segments, from technology, from the level of domestic content (TKDN), the weight of TKDN and so on; we have made it more detailed,’ Agus said on Saturday, 3 January 2026. Regarding electric vehicles, Agus emphasised that the government’s focus is to push first-time buyers to broaden EV adoption. ‘If we are talking about electric cars, first buyers are our priority. The figures will emerge gradually,’ he explained. (fab/fab)