Purbaya Vows to Probe Tax Refund Obstacles

JAKARTA, DDTCNews — Minister of Finance, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, has stated that he will investigate the obstacles to tax refunds being experienced by businesses.

Purbaya explained that from the outset his ministry had only instructed its staff to strengthen supervision of refunds in the coal sector, not other sectors.

"Refunds were at that time suspected in the natural resources area. I paid IDR25 trillion in subsidies to coal companies. That was actually what was being monitored, but apparently the implementation shifted somewhat. I will monitor it and sort it out later," said Purbaya on Tuesday (8/9/2026).

Purbaya suspects there was a misunderstanding of the instructions that had been given. "Why has there been a shift from those instructions? I will check on that later," said Purbaya.

For information, obstacles in the disbursement of tax refunds continue to attract scrutiny from entrepreneurs and the House of Representatives. Minister of Industry, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, said his ministry had received complaints from the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kamar Dagang dan Industri/Kadin in Indonesian) regarding obstacles to the disbursement of said refunds.

Agus said that delays in disbursing refunds would affect entrepreneurs' cash flow as well as their capacity to undertake new projects.

"We fully understand these complaints [from entrepreneurs], and we have coordinated, conveyed and consulted with the minister of finance, who indeed holds the authority or policy responsibility for refunds," said Agus last week.

Meanwhile, House Commission XI member, Harris Turino, is of the view that refunds need to be disbursed promptly, given that they are the right of the taxpayer. "An overpayment refund is fundamentally a corporate right. If this is withheld, many corporations will experience cash flow issues," said Harris.

As of July 2026, the realisation of refunds was recorded at only IDR185.38 trillion, a decline of 33.65%. (dik)