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Tarnus graduate, military officer to head tax, customs offices
Two figures with ties to the military, including an active officer, are expected to head the Finance Ministry's tax and customs offices by presidential appointment, though it is unknown when they will take up their new roles.
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Bimo Wijayanto speaks to the press on May 20, 2025, after a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto at the presidential palace complex in Central Jakarta to discuss his impending inauguration as taxation director general at the Finance Ministry. (ANTARA FOTO/Hafidz Mubarak A)
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graduate of SMA Taruna Nusantara (Tarnus) senior high school and an active military officer are expected to be appointed as the new chiefs of the Finance Ministry’s taxation and customs offices, after President Prabowo Subianto summoned the respective candidates, Bimo Wijayanto and Lt. Gen. Djaka Budi, to the State Palace on Tuesday.
Bimo, who is slated to become the new taxation director general, said the President instructed him to fix the country’s taxation system “so it can be more accountable, have more integrity and be more independent to secure his national programs”, he told reporters on May 20, as quoted by state news agency Antara.
Asked when he and Djaka would be respectively installed as the new taxation director general and customs and excise director general, Bimo replied, “As soon as possible. Maybe this week.”
Bimo will join the graduates of Tarnus, a military-style elite boarding school that was established by the Defense Ministry in 1990 in Magelang, Central Java, who have enjoyed Prabowo’s favor in government appointments, among them Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya and Foreign Minister Sugiono.
After completing his secondary education in 1995, Bimo earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and accounting at Gadjah Mada University, followed by a master and a PhD from the University of Queensland and the University of Canberra, respectively.
In the government, he worked at the Tax Office for less than a year until mid-2015 before serving as second deputy at the Executive Office of the President from 2016 to 2020. He then worked from 2020 to 2024 under coordinating maritime affairs and investment minister Luhut Pandjaitan, a position that has been discontinued, until he took up his current role as deputy secretary at the Office of the Coordinating Economy Minister.
Meanwhile, Djaka is a graduate of the Indonesian Military Academy, the alma mater of most of the country’s high-ranking military officers.
