December 18, 2025 | 07:24 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa claims that officials within the Directorate General of Customs and Excise are demonstrating a renewed commitment to integrity. According to the Minister, the agency has become significantly more proactive in identifying and combating customs violations.
"Customs and Excise are now more active in conducting raids and inspections; they have become almost impossible to bribe, which is why we are seeing such a sharp increase in successful arrests," he stated during a press conference on the State Budget at the Finance Ministry on Thursday, December 18, 2025.
Purbaya highlighted that this improved performance was recently evidenced by the major disruption of a smuggling ring involving 11 million illegal cigarettes from Dili, Timor-Leste, on December 11, 2025. Authorities identified and apprehended three Chinese nationals at the international departure terminal of Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten, as they attempted to flee the country.
The smuggling operation was dismantled through a series of coordinated strikes across the Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, and East Nusa Tenggara Customs regions. The investigation began with the seizure of 138,160 illegal cigarettes, including unbranded sticks without tax stamps and counterfeit Marlboros with forged stamps, at a residence in Atambua Selatan, Belu Regency.
Following this lead, Purbaya noted that officials uncovered a warehouse in North Central Timor, East Nusa Tenggara, containing 1,100 cartons of counterfeit Marlboro and Marlboro Gold cigarettes, all bearing fraudulent tax stamps.
"This enforcement is the direct result of intelligence work and [our commitment to] following up on community reports regarding suspicious activity in border areas," the Minister explained.
The total value of the seized 11 million cigarettes is estimated at approximately Rp23 billion, preventing a projected state loss of roughly Rp12.5 billion in unpaid excise and taxes.
Previously, Purbaya had been candid about the reputational challenges facing the Directorate General of Customs and Excise, acknowledging its poor standing with the public, the media, and high-ranking officials. He had specifically requested a grace period from President Prabowo Subianto to overhaul the agency’s performance.
Speaking at the parliamentary complex on November 27, 2025, Purbaya warned of the high stakes involved, noting that if the agency failed to improve and satisfy public expectations, it faced the risk of being frozen and replaced by an external auditor like SGS (Societe Generale de Surveillance), mirroring historical precedents.
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