Luhut Reveals Digital Transformation Potentially Saves Budget Of Up To IDR 400 Trillion

Special Advisor to the President for Digitalization and Government Technology Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Presidential Special Advisor for Digitalization and Government Technology Affairs, as well as Chairman of the National Economic Council Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan revealed that the acceleration of digital transformation carried out by the government has the potential to have a major impact, especially in budget efficiency.

According to Luhut, the government sees a very significant potential budget savings of Rp350-Rp400 trillion.

"The deficit budget may think that if I'm not mistaken, the figure is six hundreds of trillions with the savings that the team tried at a minimum, which is almost Rp. 350 to Rp. 400 trillion," said Luhut at his office, Tuesday, August 26.

Luhut said this figure does not include savings from various other sectors that have not been thoroughly studied.

He added that President Prabowo wanted the budget deficit to be reduced lower than the current conditions, and hoped that the deficit could gradually continue to decline.

"So the President's desire for a budget deficit is lower than what is currently there. As he speeches, it may not be zero, but gradually until 2026 we think we will be able to do well," he said.

Luhut emphasized that this achievement was not an easy job, because it required very strict coordination between institutions.

For information, Luhut, who was asked to be the Chairman of the Committee for the Acceleration of Digital Transformation, the Government has just held a working meeting with relevant ministries and institutions, starting from the Ministry of PAN-RB, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs, Head of the National Planning Agency (Bappenas), Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Ministry of SOEs, Ministry of State Secretary, and Regent of Banyuwangi.

He conveyed that this committee had held the inaugural meeting and this meeting was a follow-up to Presidential Regulation Number 83 of 2025, as well as marking the start of concrete steps to strengthen Indonesia's foundation towards an inclusive, efficient, transparent, and sovereign digital government.

Luhut conveyed that this step is a commitment to leave the sectoral ego and work together for the success of national digital transformation.

Adapun mandat percepatan transformasi digital pemerintahan pertama kali diberikan Presiden sekitar tujuh bulan lalu dan menindaklanjuti arahan tersebut, tim kecil dibentuk untuk mendalami strategi digitalisasi yang dapat dijalankan.

Luhut menyampaikan agenda Komite akan difokuskan pada tiga use case utama yang menjadi fokus, yakni digitalisasi program bantuan sosial, digitalisasi perizinan usaha, dan peningkatan integrasi komponen Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).

The mandate to accelerate the digital transformation of government was first given by the President about seven months ago and following up on the directive, a small team was formed to explore the digitalization strategy that can be implemented.

Luhut conveyed that the Committee's agenda will focus on the three main use cases that are the focus, namely digitizing social assistance programs, digitizing business licensing, and increasing the integration of the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) component.