Indonesia: Analysing facilities in the special economic zones

Freddy Karyadi		Chaterine Tanuwijaya

To boost investments to Indonesia, support economic development and increase employment in the special economic zones (SEZs), Indonesia issued Government Regulation No 96 of 2016 (GR 96/2016) on December 28 2015 on 'Facilities in the Special Economic Zones', effective as of January 25 2016.

The facilities given are: tax, customs and duty; traffic of goods; employment; immigration; land; and license and non-license. The main business activities eligible for the SEZ facilities will be determined by the National Council of Special Economic Zones. There are eight SEZs at present: (1) Mangkei, North Sumatera (2) Tanjung Api-Api, South Sumatera, (3) Tanjung Lesung, Banten, (4) Mandalika, West Sumba, (5) MBTK, East Kalimantan, (6) Palu, Central Sulawesi (7) Bitung, North Sulawesi and (8) Morotai, North Maluku. GR 96/2016 refers to two types of entities: (1) 'business entity', being a company with legal entity, which may be a state-owned enterprise, or regional-owned enterprise, cooperative, private, and joint venture to carry out activities in the SEZs; and (2) 'business', being companies with legal entity or non-legal entity, or individuals doing business inside the SEZs (see Table 1).

Table 1
Incentives	Treatment in the Special Economic Zones
Tax allowance	Given to companies and individuals in the SEZs
VAT and VAT on luxury goods	Not imposed for certain taxable goods
Import duty	Duty postponed for import to SEZs
Duty	Not imposed for raw materials and supporting goods for production purposes
Tax on import	Not imposed
Land tax	Deductible in accordance with the prevailing laws

To obtain the facilities, the business entities must: (a) be granted (by the government) a status as 'business entity' to develop and/or manage the SEZ from the regional government or regency/city or Ministry/non-Ministry government institutions as authorised, in the form of a government regulation; (b) have a development and/or management of SEZs agreement with the regional government or regency/city or Ministry/government institutions as authorised; and (c) have made a certain limit of area of the SEZs.

To obtain the facilities, the business should be: (a) a resident corporate taxpayer and (b) have obtained Principle License of Investment from the Special Economic Zones Administrator. To be eligible for customs and duty, the business entity should have a system operation connected to the Directorate General of Customs and Duty.

To enjoy corporate income tax reduction, the business entity must be a new investment with new investment plan, and the line of business is in the production chain of 'main activities in the Special Economic Zones', and located at the SEZs. The facility will be given from the year commercial production commences and has realised its investment. 'Main activities' in the SEZs will be determined by the National Council for Special Economic Zones (see Table 2).

Table 2
Investment value	Period of facility	Income tax reduction
more than Rp1,000,000,000,000,- (1 trillion Rupiah)	at least 10 years to a maximum of 25 years	20% - 100%
Rp.500,000,000,- (500 billion Rupiah) up to Rp1,000,000,000,000,- (1 trillion Rupiah)	at least five years to a maximum of 15 years	20% - 100%
less than Rp.500,000,000,- (500 billion Rupiah)	at least five years to a maximum of 15 years	Determined by the relevant ministry

It is hoped that these facilities and other measures will accelerate national economic development as a whole, and maximise industrial activities, export, import and other economic activities with high economic value.

Freddy Karyadi (fkaryadi@abnrlaw.com) and Chaterine Tanuwijaya (ctanuwijaya@abnrlaw.com)

Ali Budiardjo, Nugroho, Reksodiputro, Counsellors at Law

Tel: +62 21 250 5125

Website: www.abnrlaw.com