Revealed! Prabowo Explains Why Teacher Salaries Are Difficult to Raise

President Prabowo Subianto has spoken out about why salaries for teachers and civil servants are difficult to raise. One of the causes, he said, is budget leakage. He stated that the leakage of state revenue is estimated to reach Rp2,500 trillion each year, rendering the state budget inadequate for improving public welfare. This was conveyed by Prabowo during his address at the closing ceremony of the 2026 National Deliberation of Alim Ulama and Grand Conference of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in Bangkalan, Surabaya, East Java, on Tuesday, 23 June 2026. “I want to convey in this forum, because I want you, NU members, as leaders, as ulama, as teachers, as guides of the people, to understand why teacher salaries cannot be good. Why civil servant salaries cannot be good. Why the budget is always insufficient. Because the money is not there; it keeps being taken,” Prabowo said. He again mentioned the practice of under-invoicing, or fraudulent reporting of transaction values, which has been carried out by business actors for years. This has also caused massive state losses. “Those business actors lie. They claim they sold 1,000 tonnes, but they report only 500 tonnes. What does that mean? It means the state loses,” he revealed. Prabowo stated that according to expert calculations, Indonesia suffers losses of up to 150 billion US dollars, or Rp2,500 trillion, each year. Wealth that should be felt for domestic development instead evaporates and disappears. “Ladies and gentlemen, our leakage, we calculate, experts now calculate it is approximately 150 billion US dollars per year, Rp2,500 trillion per year,” he said. Therefore, Prabowo continued, various efforts to improve state governance to close the leakage loopholes are continuously being undertaken by the government. One current effort is implementing a single-door export policy for strategic natural resource commodities through PT Danantara Sumber Daya Indonesia (PT DSI). This is to prevent the practice of under-invoicing by business actors. Additionally, the government has also closed up to 240 state-owned enterprises (BUMN) that were continuously incurring losses. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is what I am currently fixing,” Prabowo asserted.