Finance Minister Purbaya Threatens to Non-Job Problematic Tax ASN in Restitution Processes

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has threatened to reassign or deactivate civil servants (ASN) in the tax sector who are proven to have issues in the restitution process.

Purbaya stated that heads of tax offices indicated to have abused their authority in restitution will be immediately dealt with after an investigation.

“So if there is a place where tax restitution is tight and we investigate and find problems, automatically I will move the head right away. I can’t fire them, though. I would if I could, but I can’t. At most, I can shift them to a quiet place,” said Purbaya during a media briefing at the Financial Education and Training Agency (BPPK) in South Jakarta on Friday (24/4/2026).

However, Purbaya signalled that the disciplinary approach towards problematic employees could be tightened, including through a non-job scheme or deactivation from positions.

He said that option is now available following changes in the bureaucratic disciplinary enforcement approach.

“Previously, it wasn’t possible. Can it now? Yes. Wow, I can non-job the old ones now. For the old cases, non-job wasn’t possible. Only transfer was allowed. Are you sure you can non-job? Oh, yes, that’s the message. If there’s any funny business, say non-job,” he stated.

He admitted that previously, actions against problematic officials tended to be limited to transfers, but now there is room for harsher measures.

“Has the regulation changed? How come? Is it true? For the old ones, they said I couldn’t non-job them. I had to just transfer them to another place. Because of the regulations,” he said.

For taxpayers, restitution is a sensitive service because it involves the return of funds from the state, so the process is often a focus of supervision to prevent abuse of authority.

With the threat of transfers up to non-job, Purbaya emphasised that disciplinary enforcement in the tax sector will no longer stop at administrative warnings but can affect the positions of the relevant officials.