Celios to File UN Audit Request over BPS Poverty Line Data, Cites Malaysian Precedent

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The Executive Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios), Bhima Yudhistira, said the organization will file another request for audit to the United Nations, now for Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data on poverty line in Indonesia. Celios previously submitted audit request to the world organization on Indonesia’s 2025 second-quarter economic growth data, which BPS declared at 5.12 percent y-o-y.

“Going forward, we will also file a request to the UN to probe the poverty line data,” said Bhima to the media crew at the Celios office in Jakarta on Saturday, August 16, 2025.

The request, he said, will be submitted in the near future.

Study Case of Malaysia

Regarding the validity of the poverty line data, Bhima cited a case that occurred in Malaysia. In 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, stated that the poverty rate in Malaysia was bigger than the figure reported by the government.

The Malaysian government claimed that the poverty rate had drastically dropped from 49 percent in 1970 to 0.4 percent in 2016, but Alston said the actual poverty rate at the time was around 15 percent.

Bhima pointed out that after the UN sent a Special Rapporteur to Malaysia, the Malaysian government finally acknowledged and revised the poverty line. “So the bottom line is that there must be a revision to the data presented by the BPS and transparency,” he said.

BPS Announced 8.47 Percent of Poverty Rate

Previously, the BPS announced that the national poverty rate in March 2025 was at 8.47 percent, involving 23.85 million people. This figure had slipped by 0.10 percentage points compared to September 2024, which was recorded at 8.57 percent. Meanwhile, the national poverty line in March 2025 was at Rp609,160 per capita per month. As for the extreme poverty rate in March 2025, it stood at 0.85 percent, involving 2.38 million people.

The Deputy for Social Statistics at BPS, Ateng Hartono, stated that the revision on poverty standards is currently underway. He mentioned that BPS had carried out various steps to refine the poverty calculation method, from conducting studies to engaging in dialogues with various parties such as the Forum for Statistical Society, the National Development Planning Agency, the National Economic Council, and academics.

According to Ateng, BPS continues to adopt feedback to improve the poverty calculation method. However, he could not confirm when this method revision would be completed. “As for us in the technical team, when it will be implemented—either in March 2026 or another time—we are waiting and preparing to implement the new method,” said Ateng during a press conference at the BPS office in Jakarta on Friday, July 25, 2025.

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