Legislator: Salary Cuts for Ministers and DPR Members Save Only 0.02 Percent of State Budget
Jakarta — Irma Suryani Chaniago, a member of Commission IX of the DPR and chair of the Nasdem party’s central board, has stated that if President Prabowo Subianto implements salary cuts for DPR members and ministers, the government would save only 0.02 percent of the state budget (APBN).
Accordingly, Irma questions whether salary cuts for officials during a global crisis are truly effective.
“Politically, this idea sounds attractive. When the public is asked to economise and the government tightens expenditure, the public naturally wants to see state elites sharing the same sacrifices,” Irma said when asked for comment on Tuesday (17 March 2026).
“However, is cutting officials’ salaries truly effective in saving the APBN? Because after calculations, the efficiency is only 0.02 percent of total APBN,” she added.
If the total income of a minister, accounting for base salary, position allowances and various facilities, is assumed to be approximately 100 million rupiah per month, then total expenditure for all ministers reaches around 57.6 billion rupiah per year. For deputy ministers, with estimated monthly income of around 70 million rupiah, the annual total reaches approximately 47 billion rupiah, Irma explained.
Overall expenditure for ministerial and deputy ministerial salaries therefore ranges around 104 billion rupiah annually, according to Irma.
Should the government implement a 10 percent salary cut for cabinet officials, the savings would amount to approximately 10 billion rupiah per year. Even with a 50 percent cut, savings would reach approximately 52 billion rupiah annually, Irma noted.
She emphasised that such savings figures remain modest. Combined with DPR member salary cuts, the impact would still be relatively insignificant.
“With total DPR-related salary and allowance budget reaching approximately 1.6 trillion rupiah per year, a 50 percent cut would save only approximately 800 billion rupiah. Combined with ministerial and deputy ministerial salary cuts, maximum total savings would reach approximately 850 billion rupiah,” she said.