Hoax! Bahlil did not state TVs will be confiscated for unpaid tax

A Facebook post featured a photo of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Minister Bahlil Lahadalia, falsely narrating that the government would impose a tax on citizens who own televisions. The post also claimed that TVs would be confiscated and become state property if owners failed to pay the tax.

However, based on an investigation, the photo of Bahlil Lahadalia in the post is identical to one published in a Kompas article titled ‘Bahlil Reveals Root Cause of Power Outages in Indonesia’. The photo was taken during Bahlil’s visit to Purworejo Regency on Friday, 19 June 2026. In that report, Bahlil explained that power outages in several regions were not caused by a national shortage of coal supply. He stated the issues were more due to technical operational constraints at power plants, maintenance activities, and limited supply of coal with specific specifications. There was no statement regarding plans to impose a television tax or confiscate citizens’ TVs.

To date, there has been no official statement from Bahlil Lahadalia or the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources regarding a plan to impose a tax on television owners. Furthermore, no government regulation governs the confiscation of citizens’ televisions for non-payment of a TV tax. Thus, the claim that Minister Bahlil Lahadalia will impose a tax on television owners and confiscate TVs for non-payment is false, or a hoax.