Jakarta — President Prabowo Subianto has laid out his reasons for eliminating the bonus scheme, known as tantiem, for commissioners and directors of loss-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as well as for cutting the number of commissioners in these companies.

Prabowo said he found absurd practices in the field regarding tantiem—profit-sharing bonuses awarded to SOE executives.

“I’ve abolished tantiem. I didn’t even know what the word meant—it’s just a ploy. They choose a foreign term so we wouldn’t understand what it is!” Prabowo said during his presentation of the 2026 State Budget Bill at the Parliament Complex in Senayan on Friday (Aug. 15).

He revealed that in the past, there were SOE commissioners who attended meetings only once a month yet received tantiem payments of up to Rp 40 billion per year.

“How is it possible that a commissioner who meets once a month gets Rp 40 billion a year in tantiem? I’ve also ordered Danantara [Indonesia’s sovereign investment authority] that directors don’t get tantiem if the company is losing money—and profits must be real profits, not cooked-up figures. We’ve been Indonesians long enough to know these tricks,” Prabowo said.

“And if the directors or commissioners don’t like it, they can resign immediately!” he added, drawing applause from the audience.

Prabowo also noted that some loss-making SOEs had an excessive number of commissioners.

“That’s why I’ve tasked the Danantara Investment Authority with cleaning up our SOEs. Their management was completely unreasonable—companies were losing money yet had far too many commissioners. I’ve cut the number of commissioners by half. The maximum is six people, but ideally only four or five,” he said.

The president stressed that every rupiah of public funds must be safeguarded through high-quality spending.

“Don’t play around with the people’s money. We must continually improve the quality of state spending, push for greater efficiency, and ensure every rupiah delivers tangible benefits. Wasteful operational spending must be slashed,” Prabowo said.

“Government spending must generate benefits, create jobs, strengthen purchasing power, and improve the quality of public services.”