Nadiem Surprised as His Personal Tax Return is Revealed in Chromebook Trial

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Nadiem Makarim admitted he was surprised and confused that his annual tax notification letter (SPT) was opened during the trial of the alleged corruption case involving the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops.

“I was shocked at how my tax SPT was used to prove corruption,” Nadiem said when met during a break in the trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court, Monday (30/3/2026).

Nadiem stated that the Tax SPT is a voluntary report prepared for him.

However, that data was instead opened in the trial as if there was manipulation within it.

Regardless, Nadiem said he was grateful after hearing testimony from tax expert Meidijati, who is also the Head of the Subdirectorate for General Tax Provisions and Forced Collection of the Directorate General of Taxes of the Ministry of Finance (Ditjen Pajak Kemenkeu).

“Alhamdulillah, it has been proven because all my tax SPT reports were revealed that there is no Rp 809 billion figure at all in all my SPT reports,” Nadiem said again.

“That transaction was fully returned to PT AKAB because there was a debt from PT GI. So, the Rp 809 billion was returned intact to PT AKAB,” Nadiem said.

Nadiem Makarim is charged with causing a state financial loss of Rp 2.1 trillion in the alleged corruption case of procuring Chromebook-based laptops.

This act was carried out together with three other defendants, namely former Kemendikbudristek technology consultant Ibrahim Arief, former Kemendikbudristek Junior High School Director Mulyatsyah, and former Kemendikbudristek Elementary School Director Sri Wahyuningsih.

The calculation of state losses is divided into two elements, namely for the procurement of Chromebook-based laptops and the procurement of Chrome Device Management (CDM).

Prosecutors assess that the CDM procurement harmed the state because it was unnecessary and not required in the Kemendikbudristek Digitalisation Education Programme at that time.

In addition, the Chromebook procurement process was also deemed problematic because it did not go through a proper study process.

The Chromebook laptops are said to be unusable in frontier, outermost, and disadvantaged areas (3T) due to internet signal limitations.