Assessing Sharia Compliance of Indonesian Sovereign Sukuk via the Underlying Asset Principle

Sharifurrohman Hoh; Zulfikar Yahya Anhar

Authors

Sharifurrohman Hoh UIN Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin
Zulfikar Yahya Anhar Universitas Pamulang

Keywords:

Sovereign sukuk, Sharia compliance, underlying asset, Islamic public finance, DSN-MUI

Abstract

This study evaluates the Sharia compliance of Indonesia's sovereign sukuk (Surat Berharga Syariah Negara, SBSN) issued between 2008 and 2024 a programme whose cumulative gross issuance now exceeds IDR 2,000 trillion focusing on the underlying-asset principle that anchors Islamic capital-market instruments to tangible economic value. Using a qualitative normative-juridical method, it analyses primary legal sources Law No. 19 of 2008 on SBSN, DSN-MUI Fatwas No. 69–72 of 2008, and AAOIFI Sharia Standard No. 17 together with official issuance documentation. The analysis argues that although Indonesia has built a comprehensive regulatory and fatwa architecture, the predominant asset-based ijarah sale-and-lease-back structure transfers only usufruct rights (hak manfaat) rather than legal ownership, sustaining a gap between formal documentation and economic substance in asset tangibility, ownership transfer, and valuation adequacy. As its principal contribution, the study proposes and operationalises a Tripartite Compliance Framework (TCF) that assesses sovereign sukuk across legal-regulatory, economic-substantive, and theological-ethical dimensions, replacing binary compliant/non-compliant verdicts with a graded compliance profile. For Indonesia, the framework implies that DJPPR, DSN-MUI, and OJK should strengthen asset identification, institute ongoing Sharia audit, and expand project-based issuance to narrow the form substance gap

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