Restitution Rules Accelerated, Purbaya Admits Calculation Errors Up to Rp 25 Trillion
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has tightened the mechanism for preliminary refunds of excess tax payments (restitusi) through Ministerial Regulation Number 28 of 2026.
This policy comes amid initial findings of a lack of control in restitusi disbursements, including indications of calculation errors in several sectors.
One of the main changes in the regulation is the accelerated reduction of the VAT restitusi threshold for Taxable Entrepreneurs (PKP), from the previous Rp 5 billion to Rp 1 billion.
This step is intended to tighten supervision while ensuring the restitusi process runs more orderly.
“This is just to control it so that the restitusi comes out more neatly,” said Purbaya to the media at the Ministry of Finance in Jakarta on Monday (4/5/2026).
The audit is being conducted by the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) to ensure there are no deviations in calculations or fund disbursements.
“This restitusi is currently under investigation audit from 2016 to 2025 by BPKP. I asked for it to be audited properly so we don’t get caught off guard,” he said.
He highlighted indications of discrepancies in restitusi calculations, especially in the coal industry sector. In fact, according to him, the government has had to cover large excess payments due to those errors.
“Especially in the coal industry. The VAT, I covered Rp 25 trillion in restitusi. Net. So I paid. There was something wrong with the calculations,” he revealed.
The government wants to ensure that every potential error can be identified before the mechanism is relaxed again.
“For now, it’s suspended so it’s not too uncontrolled if there are errors. Later, when the errors are found, fine. Whoever is playing around, we’ll hit them,” he emphasised.
Nevertheless, the BPKP audit results have not yet fully emerged. Purbaya stated he will coordinate again with the Head of BPKP to discuss developments in the findings.
“Not yet out (the audit results), I’ll meet again with Mr Ateh (Head of BPKP), I’m very serious about this restitusi, because it’s coming out a bit uncontrolled,” he concluded.