The government of Indonesia unveiled on December 21 its eighth economic stimulus package that involves three policies.
The three are the scrapping of import taxes on 21 categories of airplane spare parts, provision of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for the development of oil refineries, and streamlining and harmonizing of land acquisition for infrastructure development through the new “one-map policy.”
The government intends to remove import taxes on 21 categories of airplane spare parts to bolster the competitiveness of the country’s aviation industry and ease pressure on the corporate earnings of local airlines, according to a report by Indonesia-Investments.
The Indonesian government also announced fiscal and non-fiscal incentives aimed at accelerating oil refinery development across Indonesia. This also involves the opening up of this sector to private participation, where in the past this sector was only available to state-owned energy firm Pertamina or through a partnership between a private investor and Pertamina. The Indonesian government will now allow private investors to establish oil refineries independently but with the requirement that the end-product be sold to Pertamina.
Meanwhile, the one-map policy refers to the government’s plan to harmonize all maps in the country under one reference map, aimed at speeding up land acquisition for infrastructure development nationwide. Over the past years much-needed infrastructure development has been obstructed as there has been confusion over the status of lands or the utilization plan for lands.
Since September this year, the administration under President Joko Widodo has been releasing a series of stimulus packages all aimed at boosting economic growth. In September, it unveiled the first two packages that are intended to boost industrial competitiveness through deregulation, curtail red tape, and enhance law enforcement and business certainty.
Three more packages followed in October. These entail energy tariff cuts for labor intensive industries, a fixed formula for labor wage hikes, soft micro loans for small labor-intensive businesses, tax incentives for asset revaluation, scrapping of double taxation on real estate investment trusts, and deregulation of Islamic banking.
In November, the sixth stimulus policy was announced, centered on tax incentives for investment in special economic zones.
Earlier this month, the seventh package was publicized, and it involves providing free leasehold certificates for street vendors operating in 34 state-owned designated areas.
Photo: en:User:Fl295 (original photo) & User:Father Goose (cropping)
