Prabowo Reveals Why Teacher and Civil Servant Salaries Cannot Be Improved

President Prabowo Subianto has revealed that state revenue leakages, estimated at Rp2,500 trillion annually, are a primary cause of the national budget shortfall. As a result, various programmes to improve public welfare, including raising the salaries of teachers and civil servants, have become difficult for the government to implement.

Prabowo made these remarks during his address at the closing ceremony of the 2026 National Alim Ulama Deliberation and Grand Conference of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in Bangkalan, Surabaya, East Java, on Tuesday (23/6/2026). On that occasion, he laid bare the problem of Indonesia’s wealth flowing abroad for years.

“I want to convey in this forum, because I want you, the NU community, as leaders, as ulama, as teachers, as guides of the people, to understand. Why can’t teachers’ salaries be good? Why can’t civil servants’ salaries be good? Why is the budget always insufficient? Because the money is not there, it keeps being taken,” Prabowo stated.

He again raised the issue of under-invoicing, or fraudulent reporting of transaction values, which has been routinely practised by business actors for years. This has also caused massive state losses. “The business actors lie. They say they sold 1,000 tonnes, but they report only 500 tonnes. What does that mean? It means the state loses,” Prabowo said.

Prabowo noted that according to expert calculations, Indonesia suffers losses of up to US$150 billion or Rp2,500 trillion each year. Wealth that should be felt in its benefits for domestic development simply evaporates. Therefore, he continued, various efforts to improve state governance to close leakage loopholes are being continuously pursued by the government. One current effort is implementing a single-gate export policy for strategic natural resource commodities through PT Danantara Sumber Daya Indonesia (PT DSI) to prevent under-invoicing practices by business actors.

Additionally, the government has also shut down up to 240 state-owned enterprises (BUMN) that were persistently loss-making. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am currently fixing all of this,” Prabowo asserted.