Finance minister says President Prabowo had approved plan to dissolve Customs before granting agency time to improve
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said President Prabowo Subianto had previously approved a plan to dissolve the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DJBC) and replace its functions with Swiss inspection company Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) if reforms failed to deliver results.
Speaking on Denny Sumargo’s podcast, Purbaya said he persuaded the President to postpone the plan and allow Customs one more year to improve its performance before a final decision is made.
“Initially, the President had decided to dissolve Customs. I asked for one year to fix it first,” Purbaya said.
According to Purbaya, Prabowo had grown frustrated with longstanding governance issues within Customs, prompting discussions on outsourcing customs inspection functions to SGS, a Swiss-based testing, inspection and certification company that previously handled Indonesia’s pre-shipment inspection system during the New Order era.
The minister said the ultimatum has become a key driver behind his aggressive overhaul of the agency.
Customs reforms
Purbaya said the Finance Ministry has intensified internal reforms, including personnel reshuffles, suspensions and investigations into officials suspected of misconduct.
He admitted irregularities still exist despite tighter monitoring.
“We’ve shaken up Customs, but violations still happen. Those involved in under-invoicing and illegal imports will be dealt with,” he said.
He added that officials suspected of misconduct are now being removed from active duty even before disciplinary cases are completed to strengthen deterrence.
Purbaya also said the ministry has opened Customs and Tax offices to investigations by law enforcement agencies, ending what he described as years of institutional protection from external scrutiny.
One-year deadline
Purbaya said he informed senior Customs officials that the agency had narrowly avoided dissolution after he convinced the President to delay the decision.
“I told them Customs had already been decided to be dissolved during a limited cabinet meeting. I was pushing them hard because I wanted to save the institution,” he said.
He said reforms will continue through September, when another round of evaluations is scheduled.
“If improvements fail, the President’s option remains on the table,” he said.
The latest remarks reinforce Purbaya’s earlier public statements that Prabowo had repeatedly threatened to replace Customs with SGS over concerns about governance and revenue collection. However, by March the minister said visible improvements had convinced the President to temporarily shelve the proposal.
SGS, or Société Générale de Surveillance, is a Switzerland-based global inspection, testing and certification company. Indonesia previously relied on SGS under a pre-shipment inspection scheme for imports during the 1980s and 1990s before customs functions were gradually returned to government authorities.
