Govt Urged to Review PPN Imposed to Smelter Owners
23 September 2014 18:46 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government has been urged to review the value-added tax (PPN) imposed to smelter owners, as it incurred additional cost for business owners who want to provide added value to mineral products.
“Some companies considered that the PPN is burdensome. They have asked the PPN to be removed,” R. Sukhyar, director general of mineral and coal at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said on Tuesday, September 23, 2014.
According to Sukhyar, the request would become a valuable input for the government, because the PPN imposition for smelter owners was previously aimed to contribute to state revenue.
“We did not realize that creating added value on mineral would be hampered by the PPN. So, we forwarded this request to the Finance Ministry. They will assess it,” he said.
Agus Suhartono, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Miners Association, said another obstacle in realizing mineral downstream industry was lack of funding. According to Agus, the government had not encouraged financial sectors to help the downstream process.
Data from the Central Statistics Agency revealed that mining sectors contributed Rp266.6 trillion (US$22.2 billion) to this year’s gross domestic product, which is lower than that of Rp269.5 trillion (US$22.5 billion) last year.
AYU PRIMA SANDI