The development of General Allocation Fund (DAU) per capita during 2017–2024 reflects the redistributive role of Indonesia’s intergovernmental transfer system in reducing regional fiscal disparities. Both the average and median DAU per capita gradually declined between 2017 and 2022, with the sharpest reductions occurring during the pandemic period as fiscal pressures and budget reallocations affected central government transfers. However, the trend began to recover in 2023–2024, indicating the normalization of fiscal transfers and improving central government capacity following the post-pandemic economic recovery. The distribution of DAU per capita also remained highly unequal across regions, as reflected by the persistent gap between the mean and median values and the presence of numerous upper-end outliers in the distribution. Most regions received allocations within the range of approximately Rp1–3 million per capita, while several remote districts—particularly in Papua—received allocations exceeding Rp20–30 million per capita due to geographic challenges, low population density, and the government’s affirmative fiscal policies toward underdeveloped regions. In contrast, economically advanced and densely populated provinces such as Jawa Barat and Banten received relatively low DAU allocations per capita because of their stronger local fiscal capacity. Notably, DKI Jakarta effectively does not receive DAU transfers, as its exceptionally high fiscal capacity and strong locally generated revenues place it above the threshold for DAU equalization support within Indonesia’s fiscal transfer formula.