Jakarta — Deputy Minister of Finance Suahasil Nazara said that the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DJBC)’s crackdown on the circulation of illegal cigarettes—or cigarettes with problematic excise stamps—achieved significant results in January 2026.

During the “APBN Kita” press conference on Monday (Feb. 23), Suahasil noted that the number of illegal cigarettes successfully seized last month reached 249 million sticks, a sharp increase of 295.9 percent compared to 63 million sticks during the same period the previous year.

“In January 2026, the number of illegal cigarettes seized by Customs and Excise rose to 249 million. And of course, this demonstrates the strength of Customs and Excise, which we hope will continue into the future,” said Suahasil.

This figure resulted from 1,243 enforcement actions carried out by the DJBC throughout January. This figure represents a 53.8 percent increase compared to the 808 enforcement actions in January 2025.

The surge in the number of illegal cigarettes, he continued, was driven in part by a raid on an illegal cigarette warehouse in Pekanbaru, Riau. During that operation, the DJBC collaborated with other law enforcement agencies to successfully locate the warehouse and carry out a large-scale enforcement action.

“We were then able to locate this warehouse and carry out a major raid and enforcement operation there,” said Suahasil.

In addition to illegal cigarettes, enforcement actions against narcotics have also increased. While in January 2025 the amount of evidence seized was approximately 0.1 metric tons, by January 2026 that figure had more than doubled to 0.21 metric tons.

Suahasil emphasized that this achievement is closely tied to the performance of the new DJBC team appointed by Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, which continues to optimize oversight in the areas of customs and excise.

“We hope this trend continues into the future so that we can improve both our oversight and the collection of state revenue,” he stated.