TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Franky Sibarani, head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), said there are four companies that have filed for tax allowances.

The small number, said BKPM's deputy for capital investment control Azhar Lubis, is understandable since the technical rules and guidance of the tax allowance was just finished last week.

He said that not all investors are eligible for the facility, "only those working on certain industrial sectors in certain provinces."

On April 6, President Joko Widodo passed the Government Regulation No.18/2015 on Income Tax Facilities for Investment in Certain Business Sectors, which stipulates, among others, the granting of incentives to investors in the form of a five-percent tax cut every year for six years.

As many as 143 business fields are eligible for the tax allowance. Some of them are cattle breeding and cultivation, geothermal energy exploitation, chocolate, confectionery and baby food producers, spinning-yarn industries, pharmaceutical materials industry, tire industry, as well as iron and steel-based industries.

Lestari Indah, BKPM's deputy for investment services, said that the tax allowance process will only take up to 28 days. She asks investors to submit the requests through the agency's one stop services facility.

ADITYA BUDIMAN