Purbaya Exposes Tax Officials' Collusion in Restitution, Rp160 Trillion in Four Months

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has exposed collusion among tax officials who manipulate restitution, or the refund of overpaid taxes. He stated that this issue is evident from the increasingly high tax restitution figures in the first four months of this year, namely January to April 2026, which reached Rp160 trillion, equivalent to the restitution value for nine months in 2025. “If multiplied by another four months, that would be Rp500 trillion. Last year’s outlay was Rp360 trillion; with that figure, there shouldn’t be any complaints. It means the tax officials themselves are playing games,” Purbaya said at his office in Jakarta on Friday (26/6/2026). Purbaya suspects that the issue of tightened restitution in the early part of the year was also manipulated by rogue tax officials in cahoots with businesspeople, so that the government would not interfere with the tax refund affairs. “Perhaps some are colluding with tax officials, making a fuss so that restitution is processed quickly, so the tax officials can get their cut again, something like that. Then they tell me restitution is good, this and that… because with this, it gets jammed,” he revealed. “It means the tax officials themselves are playing games,” Purbaya stressed. “So they are being scared, because the real figure is significantly higher.” According to Purbaya, he also found practices where businesspeople without a business entity still received restitution from the Directorate General of Taxes. “They don’t have a business but ask for a lot of restitution. I am also surprised, some say they haven’t paid VAT but can get restitution first. That’s called accelerated restitution because of collusion,” he explained. Purbaya also noted that there were restitution practices carried out for exporters, even though their export goods had not yet left the customs area. “He hasn’t paid, I pay him, I’m at a loss, I’m subsidising him. There are things like that, so tax officials should not play games, don’t make a fuss outside. If there’s more fuss, I’ll really investigate,” Purbaya stated.