Purbaya Ready to Sack Subordinates Colluding with Tax Evaders

Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa will not hesitate to dismiss any of his subordinates found to be involved in tax evasion.

According to him, the involvement of staff members has hampered tax revenue, which is a source of state income.

“Yes, yes, they will be sacked in the near future,” he said when asked by reporters about action against subordinates involved in tax evasion at his office in Jakarta on Friday (28/8/2026).

One such case is the tax evasion by a Chinese steel company, which is indicated to have involved ‘insiders’.

“The fact that a company like that has operated for decades and was not detected means there was indeed someone playing games,” said Purbaya when asked by reporters whether there were tax insiders who participated in the tax evasion.

Purbaya also admitted that he already has the names of those indicated to have been playing games with tax affairs and causing losses to the state.

“There are no reports, but I do know roughly who has been playing games,” he added.

Purbaya also stated that the steel company committed tax evasion in various forms, ranging from income tax (PPh), value-added tax (PPN), to import taxes. He stressed that he will resolve the case.

Purbaya himself recently conducted an unannounced inspection of one of three Chinese steel companies found to have evaded taxes by not paying value-added tax (PPN).

From the results of the inspection conducted by Purbaya on Thursday (5/2/2026), the Directorate General of Taxes found potential state losses from the alleged criminal tax offences under investigation to be approximately Rp 583.36 billion.

The loss figure includes similar actions carried out by three affiliated Chinese steel companies, namely PT PSI, PT PSM, and PT VPM.