One Month of ASN WFH: Economist Highlights Hidden Costs
JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - One month has passed since the government officially implemented the Work From Home (WFH) policy for Civil Servants (ASN) every Friday starting 1 April 2026.
The government is also encouraging the private sector to adopt WFH outside essential services through Circular Letter M/6/HK.04/III/2026. However, the implementation of WFH in the private sector is merely a recommendation and not mandatory.
In general, the government targets WFH every Friday for ASN, excluding health and security sectors, and estimates that the policy could save Rp 6.2 trillion in fuel subsidies.
Economist and Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, Budi Frensidy, stated that the energy savings from the government’s WFH policy cannot yet be considered significant.
“Because this policy has only been running for about one month and the government itself states that the evaluation will be conducted after two months,” he told Kompas.com on Saturday (9/5/2026).
He views that what exists now is more appropriately called potential savings, not final results.
“In my opinion, this policy should be run for at least 3–6 months first so that the data is sufficient to assess the impact on fuel, office electricity, official travel, productivity, and public services,” he said.
In fact, the government has designed WFH for ASN every Friday, accompanied by restrictions on official vehicles and official travel.
Furthermore, Budi said that to make the impact greater on budget savings, WFH alone is not enough.
WFH should be accompanied by real reductions in building operational costs, electricity, air conditioning, official travel, physical meetings, official vehicles, and facility rentals.
“If the office remains fully operational, official travel remains high, and meetings remain offline, WFH will only turn into a symbol of energy saving, not an instrument of fiscal savings,” he explained.
According to him, the state views WFH primarily as an instrument to reduce daily mobility, as home-to-office commutes consume petrol, diesel, parking, and other transportation costs on a large scale.
Syafruddin explained that WFH one day per week is part of optimising energy use in the workplace.
“So, the quickest savings to feel are not the reduction in carbon emissions, but the drop in fuel consumption, office electricity, air conditioning use, lifts, lights, and daily facility costs,” he told Kompas.com.
He added that the reduction in emissions remains important, but that benefit is more of a follow-up effect.
“In a situation where oil prices are surging and energy subsidies are under pressure, the fiscal and energy benefits are far more determining than the environmental benefits, whose effects appear more gradually,” he added.