Prabowo highlights national wealth leakage as cause of low salaries

Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Prabowo Subianto stated that the leakage of national wealth flowing abroad for decades is one of the reasons for the low salaries of teachers, state civil servants, and law enforcement officials.

He made the statement when presenting the Macroeconomic Framework and Fiscal Policy Principles (KEM-PPKF) during the 19th plenary meeting of the House of Representatives (DPR) at the parliament complex here on Wednesday.

Prabowo said that based on United Nations (UN) data, Indonesia's profits over 22 years reached US$436 billion, but the funds leaking out of Indonesia reached US$343 billion.

"This means that for 22 years, our wealth remaining in Indonesia is US$436 billion minus US$343 billion. This is why teachers' salaries are low, law enforcement officials' salaries are low, and ASN salaries are low. This is why the budget is always not enough," the President said.

He also highlighted the practice of under-invoicing, or reporting export values below the actual value, which he described as a form of fraud.

This practice is carried out by selling commodities from domestic companies to self-owned companies abroad at prices far lower than the actual prices.

"Many of them set up companies abroad. They sell from their domestic company to their company abroad at prices far below the actual value. This is what is happening. Once again, this is data from the UN," the President said.

Prabowo stated that such practices occur across various commodities, including coal and crude palm oil.

In addition to under-invoicing, the Head of State also touched upon under-counting, transfer pricing, and smuggling through ports.

According to him, the discrepancy between reports and actual conditions in a number of transactions can even reach 50 percent.

Therefore, Prabowo assessed that government institutions need to be improved, including the customs and excise sector.

"I still remember during the New Order era, because customs was so bad, we closed customs. We outsourced it to the private sector and state revenue increased. Isn't that sad? This is a struggle for all of us. I do not mean to lower anyone's morale. But it is time for us to speak honestly to ourselves, to our people," he stated.