A graphic has circulated online falsely claiming to show a genuine government announcement that Indonesia plans to impose a tax on bicycle ownership. The posts feature the picture of a former official from the transport ministry, who retired from his job years ago. A government spokesman also rejected the claim.
"Good morning, those who have bicycles, let's see your comments," says an Indonesian-language Facebook post uploaded on July 26, 2026.
The attached graphic shows a picture of Budi Setiyadi, a former official responsible for land transportation at the Ministry of Transportation, along with text that reads: "A bicycle tax is going to be levied. The Ministry of Transportation is opening discourse for bicycle owners to pay taxes."
The same post has also been shared widely on TikTok, Instagram and Threads.
The claim circulated amid rising public concern over Indonesia's economic condition, with the rupiah hitting successive record lows and foreign debt ballooning to $434 billion in the first quarter of 2026 (archived here and here).
Some users appear to believe the posts report on genuine plans by the government to impose levies on bicycle ownership -- which are currently exempt from taxes.
"The government now is crazy," one user wrote, while another comment reads: "The officials of this country are really greedy."
Responding to an AFP query on the false claim, a transportation ministry official dismissed it on July 23 as a "hoax".
Budi Setiyadi -- whose picture appears in the false posts -- has not made any public remarks on plans to tax bicycle ownership before he retired from the position at the transport ministry in 2022. He was replaced by Hendro Sugianto, a former police chief in Lampung in eastern Indonesia ( archived link).
The ministry refuted a similar claim that circulated around 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic when the government proposed regulations related to bicycles ( archived link).
But it said in a statement at the time that the planned law was concerned only with cyclists' safety, such as mandating reflective devices on bicycles and requiring local governments to create bicycle lanes.
It did not include imposing a tax on bicycle usage or ownership.
"This means that unlike motor vehicle owners, bicycle owners are not required to pay the annual Motor Vehicle Tax to the provincial government."
AFP has debunked another false claim about purported calls for the Indonesian government to hike taxes.