JAKARTA - Indonesia’s 50 richest people now hold wealth equal to that of 55 million citizens, according to a new April 2026 report by the Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS), which says the country’s inequality problem is being driven by the accelerating concentration of wealth at the very top.

In the study, CELIOS said the top 50 richest Indonesians controlled total wealth of Rp4,651 trillion in 2026, up sharply from Rp2,508 trillion in 2019. The report said that the stock of wealth is larger than the state budget and roughly equal to one-fifth of Indonesia’s GDP. It also found that 57.8 percent of the wealth of the top 50 comes from extractive industries, which are tied to natural-resource businesses.

“The wealth of the 50 richest people in Indonesia is equivalent to the wealth of 55 million Indonesians,” CELIOS wrote in the report. In another headline finding, it said, “Oligarchs’ wealth increases by Rp13 billion per day, workers’ wages only increase by Rp2,000 per day,” while a more detailed section put the daily rise in average worker income at Rp2,113 per day.

The scale of wealth gap also persists in individual terms. Based on the report’s median wealth comparison, the super-rich in 2026 held about Rp52.3 trillion in median wealth, while the median citizen held only Rp84.35 million. The report’s ranking showed the Hartono family - who owns Italy's top-flight team Como 1907, cigarette company Djarum, and Bank Central Asia - at the top with Rp649.84 trillion, followed by Prajogo Pangestu with Rp482.74 trillion and the Widjaja family with Rp477.68 trillion.

“The top 1% in Indonesia control approximately 20–21% of total wealth and approximately 17–18% of pre-tax national income. This means that a handful of super-rich individuals enjoy nearly a fifth of all wealth and income generated before redistribution through taxes,” CELIOS says.

As a policy response, CELIOS recommended a 2 percent wealth tax. It estimated that applying a 2 percent tax to the top 50 richest Indonesians could raise Rp93.02 trillion, while a broader wealth-tax scheme with a Rp84 billion threshold and 1–2 percent rates could generate Rp142.2 trillion per year.

“Amidst widening inequality, the state actually has room to attract greater contributions from the upper echelons of society, rather than from the already burdened common people,” the report reads.