Minister of Finance Purbaya Says New DHE Rules Have Been Completed and Ready to Be Announced

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said the new rules for the placement of foreign exchange from the export of natural resources (DHE SDA) in the State-Owned Bank Association (Himbara) have been completed and ready to be announced.

"It was signed a few days ago," Purbaya told reporters at the Ministry of Finance's office, Jakarta, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, February 25.

The Minister of Finance said that the administrative process for the new DHE SDA rules had been completed, only waiting for the policy to be announced by the Minister of State Secretary (Mensesneg) Prasetyo Hadi.

"Later let the Minister of Home Affairs announce it. It has also been (decreed)," he said.

The new rules revise Government Regulation (PP) Number 8 of 2025 concerning Amendments to PP Number 36 of 2023 concerning the Draft Export Results.

Purbaya previously explained that the policy change was aimed at strengthening the national foreign exchange reserves, which were considered not to be optimal. This is because Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves have not been achieved to reflect the size of Indonesia's trade surplus.

In 2024, Indonesia's foreign exchange reserves were recorded at US$155.7 billion, while by the end of December 2025 it only increased slightly to around US$156.5 billion or only increased by around US$0.8 billion.

In fact, based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Indonesia's Trade Balance throughout January-November 2025 recorded a surplus of 38.54 billion US dollars, an increase of 31.8 percent year-on-year compared to the same period last year of 29.24 billion US dollars.

Purbaya assessed that the condition strengthened his previous suspicion that the previous DHE rules still had many loopholes. As a result, foreign exchange from exports did enter the country, but left again in a short time.

"The rules for foreign exchange from our exports yesterday had many loopholes so that the money would still come in, and then it would come out again in a matter of hours," said Purbaya, explaining.

Therefore, he said the government plans to tighten the rules by requiring the placement of DHE SDA only in Himbara banks so that it can be better managed.

With this policy, Purbaya hopes to see the real impact of the trade surplus on foreign exchange reserves in more normal conditions.