TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Customs and Excise director general Heru Prambudi said the cigarette excise will be revised and will be enforced in 2018. However, he revealed that the plan to raise the excise rate remains uncertain.
“There are pros and cons about the excise hike. Farmers demand the excise rate remains the same. However, we also heard demands to increase [the excise rate],” Heru said when attending Indonesia Transport, Logistics, Maritime Week 2017 at the Jakarta International Expo today, Oct. 11.
Heru said that the cigarette excise hike would have impacts on the value added taxes for tobacco products and regional taxes.
Read: Cigarette Tax Increase to Be Announced in Early October
However, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani had raised cigarette excise by at least 10.54 percent in early 2017. Therefore, there is a possibility of cigarette excise hike next year.
Heru promised that he would hold a press conference to announce the new cigarette excise tariff in the near future.
He claimed that the number of operations against illegal cigarette increased when compared to last year. Heru explained that the operations were aimed at protecting legal cigarette producers.
One of the impacts of cigarette excise hike is a decreasing excise tariff layers, Heru said. In addition, imposing cigarette excise is one of the means of monitoring illegal cigarette products.
M JULNIS FIRMANSYAH
