Implementation of excisable goods and credit account books spearheads Indonesian tax changes

On October 5 2023, the Minister of Finance (MoF) promulgated Regulation No. 106/2023 concerning the Implementation of Excisable Goods and Credit Account Books.

The excise goods account book is a record containing entries related to the quantities of specific excisable goods – namely, ethyl alcohol and beverages containing ethyl alcohol (MMEA) – that are produced, imported, or exported, along with the deductions, shortages, and overcount resulting from a factory or storage location.

The credit account book contains records of excise duties whose payments have been facilitated and their settlement.

The features of the excisable goods and credit account books are as follows:

Feature	Excisable goods account book	Credit account book
Obligation to	Customs and excise officer	Customs and excise officer
Intended for	1. Every ethyl alcohol factory enterprise; 2. Every storage place enterprise, for ethyl alcohol that still owes excise duty and is in storage; and 3. Every MMEA factory enterprise.	1. Every factory enterprise that benefits from the convenience of periodic payments; 2. Every factory enterprise that receives a postponement of excise payments; and 3. Every importer of excisable goods with delays in excise payments.
Function	To record the amount of excisable goods in the form of ethyl alcohol and/or MMEA that are made, imported, entered, destroyed/damaged, mixed, paid for, issued, or deducted, as well as shortages and excess results of enumeration, which are still subject to excise duty and at the factory or storage area.	To record the amount of excise that receives payment facilities or is given a postponement and its settlement.
Recording media	Electronically through the excise system or manual form	Manual form

The regulation came into force on the date of its promulgation; i.e., October 5 2023.

On October 16 2023, the MoF issued Regulation No. 111/2023 to amend MoF Regulation No. 96/2023 (MoF-96). The regulation addresses a broad range of arrangements that specifically relate to customs, excise, and tax provisions for imports and exports of delivery goods. It has 76 articles and seven chapters that address various customs matters.

The regulation revokes MoF Regulation No. 199/PMK.010/2019, although most of the concepts are still in line with it. Furthermore, MoF-96 sets forth several new provisions, such as the following:

• A postal operator carries out arrangements for fulfilling customs obligations for the importation and exportation of consignment goods. Previously, this was regulated only for the importation of consignment goods.

• A postal operator acts as a customs services enterprise in managing the importation and/or exportation of consignment goods.

• Consignment goods include those traded via electronic systems (Penyelenggara Perdagangan Melalui Sistem Elektronik, or PPMSE); i.e., through an online retailer or marketplace. The PPMSE is required to form a partnership with the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DGCE), unless the import transactions do not exceed 1,000 consignments in a period of one calendar year.

• An appointed postal operator (Penyelenggara Pos Yang Ditunjuk) cannot postpone the payment of import duties, excise, and/or taxes. Previously, these could be postponed up to 60 days.

• The exportation of consignment goods may be subject to export duties.

• The provisions for the exportation of consignment goods as intended in this regulation shall be implemented no later than one year from when the regulation comes into effect.

As amended by MoF Regulation No. 111/2023, MoF Regulation No. 96 of 2023 became effective from October 17 2023.

The DGCE issued Regulation No. 18/BC/2023 on October 20 2023, regarding the Implementation Guidelines for Customs Re-examination. This revoked a regulation most recently amended by DGCE Regulation No. 25/BC/2019.

The DGCE can perform re-examination on import/export documents. Similar to the previous regulation, this regulation stipulates the procedures for re-examination. However, there are salient new provisions related to the following:

• An import and/or export notification that has been issued for more than 30 days can be re-examined within two years after its registration date;

• Re-examination procedures include planning, implementation and monitoring, and evaluation and quality assurance (monitoring and quality assurance are new procedures); and

• The implementation of the re-examination can be extended for no longer than 15 days, and only once.

This regulation became effective from October 21 2023.

On September 25 2023, the Indonesian government issued Government Regulation No. 46 of 2023 as an amendment to Government Regulation No. 28 of 2021 regarding the Organisation of the Industrial Sector. One of the areas regulated is the importation of materials.

The government is now aiming to provide further ease of importation for business entities that utilise their business identity number (Nomor Induk Berusaha, or NIB) as general importer identity numbers (Angka Pengenal Impor-Umum, or API-U), while ensuring the availability of materials for domestic industry, to prevent any national economic disruption. The importation of materials may be carried out not only by business entities whose NIBs effectively function as producer importer identity numbers (Angka Pengenal Impor-Produsen, or API-P) but also by business entities that utilise their NIB as an API-U.

As previously established, the objective of the amendment is to make the importation of materials easier for API-U holders. In this regard, the amendment states that imports of materials may be carried out by API-U holders, in addition to being carried out by API-P holders. However, API-U holders are still limited to imports of certain materials, as specifically addressed under relevant laws and regulations.

The amendment allows materials suppliers that have secured an API-U to import materials for small- and medium-scale industries in cases where said industries have been unable to independently complete their imports.

Furthermore, the amendment allows industrial companies to import products for complementary purposes, market testing, or after-sales services, with the objective of enhancing investment. This new initiative was not provided for in previous regulations.

Government Regulation No. 46 of 2023 became effective from September 25 2023.