President Prabowo Subianto dismissed Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa on Monday after a heated exchange with customs chief Djaka Budhi Utama. The decision came after Purbaya’s plan to rotate hundreds of officials in the tax and customs directorates was met with resistance from Djaka and tax head Bimo Wijayanto.
Djaka, a former special‑forces aide of Prabowo who served in the army during the 1990s, raised objections when the ministry announced the reshuffle. He complained that the appointments had not been vetted through the usual bureaucratic channels and that the minister had bypassed the president’s inner circle.
Djaka’s history is controversial; media reports allege he was convicted in a 1996 military court for kidnapping activists. His close ties to Prabowo gave him direct access to the president, according to a senior ministry source. One of the officials slated for transfer, a 35‑year‑old customs officer from Surabaya, said he feared losing his job and the pension he had accrued over a decade.
The move was welcomed by investors who had long complained of policy uncertainty. A senior analyst at Sukarno Securities said the sacking signals a return to technocratic governance. The new finance chief, Suahasil Nazara, a former deputy minister, has already convened a meeting with senior staff to assess the reshuffle.
Prabowo will hold a cabinet meeting on 29 September to approve the ministry’s new staffing plan, while Nazara is expected to publish a report on the implications for revenue collection by 5 October.