Prabowo: Replace the Director-General of Customs If They Are Not Able

President Prabowo Subianto has ordered that the head of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise be replaced if they are unable to resolve problems. He conveyed this instruction to Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, who oversees customs, during a speech at a plenary session of the House of Representatives (DPR) on Wednesday, 20 May 2026.

Prabowo said he had repeatedly asked for the customs sector to be improved. He judged the agency has many problems. “Let me remind you again, for several times now our customs must be improved. Minister of Finance, if the leadership of customs is not able, replace them immediately,” he said at the MPR/DPR/DPD Building, Jakarta.

The Director-General of Customs currently, Lieutenant General (Ret.) Djaka Budhi Utama, was sworn in on 23 May 2025. At that time Prabowo had been in office for seven months.

Chairman of the Gerindra Party said the people want quick work. Therefore, he said, government officials must not work leisurely. If there is a problem in an agency, Prabowo wants it fixed quickly.

Prabowo used a Sundanese phrase to emphasise his words. The government, he said, must take an “engke kumaha” (what next) stance, not a “kumaha engke” (how later).

Prabowo also discussed several problems in the customs sector. Among them, he said, are export value fraud up to smuggling that harms the state finances.

In the same speech, Prabowo also revisited the steps of former President Soeharto’s administration to improve customs. At that time, the New Order government froze customs due to rampant corruption and illegal levies. Soeharto handed the function of inspection and supervision of customs to private inspection companies from Switzerland, Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS).

Prabowo said that step increased state revenue. However, he judged that condition was sad.

On the other hand, Prabowo stated that he did not want to undermine the morale of his officials. “But it’s time for us to be honest with ourselves; we must be honest with our people,” he said.

Prabowo attended this plenary DPR meeting to present the macroeconomic framework and fiscal policy package (KEM-PPKF). The 8th President of Indonesia becomes the first president to directly present the KEM-PPKF to Parliament.

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