Finance Minister Purbaya Reveals Prabowo's Rebuke Over State Revenue Leakage

Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has revealed that he was once chided by President Prabowo Subianto because every year state revenues suffer leakage due to under-invoicing practices. “I was once ordered by the President to look into it, because I kept being chided. Every year we experience under-invoicing of several billion dollars, and the under-invoicing along with incorrect reporting is quite large,” Purbaya said during CNBC Indonesia’s Economic Update 2026, quoted on Tuesday (23/6/2026). As a result of being frequently mentioned by the head of state, Purbaya admitted he immediately took steps to investigate and formed a Team 10 within the Ministry of Finance to trace the problem of state revenue leakage. He acknowledged he was initially sceptical about the leakage of state coffers. However, after conducting an investigation and with the special team at the Ministry of Finance in operation, the leakage was uncovered. “Initially I was sceptical whether it was true, but after we investigated the data available to us, we formed a special team at the Ministry of Finance called Team 10. We examined shipment data and other things,” he said. Purbaya explained that the investigation was first carried out on crude palm oil (CPO) producing companies, where 10 companies were suspected of engaging in under-invoicing. “I examined CPO first, 10 companies, the largest CPO producers here, how much they exported, to Singapore. We took three ships from those companies at random, checked what the results looked like. From here to Singapore it was sold at a price of, say, 5, but from Singapore to America the price was not 5 but 10,” Purbaya revealed. “So I lost 50 percent from export tax and income tax. And the money does not come back here; some of it is kept abroad. So we experience losses there,” he stressed. Purbaya is also continuing to coordinate with the Attorney General’s Office and the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency regarding the issue of state revenue leakage. “I think, under the President’s direction, I am following this up with the Attorney General’s Office and BPKP. If this can be resolved, going forward income tax will be larger, from exports and from the dollar supply here,” he stated.