Indonesia issues more tax incentives for EV sales

Indonesia has announced new incentives to encourage sales of locally produced and imported electric vehicles (EVs), in its latest bid to boost take-up of environment-friendlier cars as well as attract investment to its domestic EV industry. 

The detailed incentives are a follow-up to a December-announced tax incentives plan for imported EVs for manufacturers that match import numbers with domestically made EVs in coming years. 

Under new rules made public late on Tuesday, Indonesia will remove luxury tax on EVs for the 2024 fiscal year and import tax until the end of 2025. 

It will also lower value-added tax to 1% from 11% for EV buyers this year, extending a tax break that had expired at the end of 2023. 

The incentives are aimed at stimulating domestic demand for EVs while attracting investment by automakers, the government has said. 

Many EV makers have disclosed plans to launch vehicles to Indonesia since the government announced its intention to introduce incentives, said Rachmat Kaimuddin, deputy coordinating minister overseeing EV sector development. 

China's BYD, the world's biggest EV maker by sales volume, last month unveiled three all-battery EV models it plans to sell in Indonesia. 

"Hopefully these efforts can result in even more products and make them more affordable," Rachmat told reporters at a separate briefing. 

The government aims for 600,000 EVs to be domestically produced by 2030. That would be more than 100 times the number sold in Indonesia in the first half of 2023. 

It also aims to become an EV production hub, leveraging the country's vast nickel reserves, an important material for EV batteries. 

Source: Reuters 

OECD decision to grant talks for accession to Indonesia opens new chapter in history

Following an expression of intent by the Indonesian government to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) through a letter from Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto to OECD secretary-general Mathias Cormann, as a follow-up to the directive of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the OECD Council decided to open accession discussions with Indonesia on Wednesday. This decision follows an assessment by OECD members based on the evidence-based Framework for the Consideration of Prospective Members.  

The decision to open accession discussions is also a continuation of Indonesia's increased engagement and cooperation as one of the key partners of the OECD since 2007. As a forum emphasizing the importance of collaboration and setting global standards, the OECD has been a strategic partner for the government in efforts to formulate progressive and globally accepted national policies.  

"The OECD member countries' decision today is historic. Indonesia's application is the first from Southeast Asia, one of the most dynamically growing regions in the world. As the largest economy in Southeast Asia and the third-largest democracy globally, Indonesia is a significant global player, providing crucial leadership in this region and beyond," said secretary-general Cormann.  

He added that the decision to open accession discussions would benefit Indonesia and that through the discussions, the OECD hoped to support Indonesia in continuing its reform efforts to achieve its vision of becoming a developed country with a minimum per capita income of US$30,300 by 2045. Additionally, secretary-general Cormann also hoped that Indonesia's involvement in the accession process would help strengthen the OECD's global relevance and impact.  

In line with this, minister Airlangga also said the accession process was expected to serve as a catalyst for increasing Indonesia's per capita income. Moreover, Indonesian membership in the OECD and its alignment of regulations with the international body’s standards are anticipated to have positive impacts on the general public, such as boosting investment value, promoting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as global players and enhancing human resource quality.  

"We also hope that OECD accession can support the priorities of the Indonesian government, including the green economy, digitization, human resource development, good governance and pushing Indonesia to escape the middle-income trap," said minister Airlangga.  

He also mentioned that written support for Indonesia's accession process had been obtained from Australia, Japan, Germany and Slovakia.  

Next, secretary-general Cormann mentioned that a draft road map for the accession process's technical review would be prepared in collaboration with the Indonesian government for consideration by the OECD Council at the next meeting. Encompassing various policy areas and focusing on several priority issues such as open trade and investment, public governance, integrity, anti-corruption efforts, environmental protection and climate change mitigation, the technical review process will be conducted to ensure the alignment of national regulations with OECD standards. 

Source: The Jakarta Post 

Jokowi Signs Presidential Regulation on Publisher Rights to Encourage Fair Cooperation between Press, Digital Platforms

President Joko Widodo signed a presidential regulation (Perpres) on publisher rights. Jokowi said that the initial spirit of Perpres No.32/2024, was the desire to achieve quality journalism. The president made the announcement in Ancol, North Jakarta, on Feb. 20, when attending the National Press Day celebration. 

"We also want to ensure the sustainability of the national media industry. We want fairer cooperation between press companies and digital platforms," Jokowi said in his address. 

The president emphasized that the regulation was in no way intended to reduce press freedom and that the desire for the existence of publisher rights came as an initiative from members of the press. 

The government, Jokowi said, is not trying to regulate journalistic content, but instead regulate the business relationships between press companies and digital platforms, in the spirit of improving quality journalism. 

"In the implementation of this presidential regulation, we still have to anticipate the potential risks, especially during the transition period of its implementation, both in terms of how digital platforms respond as well as the response from communities that use the services," Jokowi said. 

As quoted from the Indonesian Press Council website, there are three main points in the Presidential Regulation Publisher Rights. The first is to codify existing cooperation practices. The second is to encourage interaction between digital platforms and press companies in a more balanced manner. And the third is to provide opportunities for press companies regardless of their business scale to increase cooperation with digital platforms. 

Pay for Clicks; Challenge from Google 

This regulation will implement a designation clause as stipulated in the Media Bargaining Code in Australia, wherein platforms such as Google are required to pay publishers for each news link that internet users click on from the Google search engine. Several other proposed clauses have also caused polemics. 

Google Indonesia issued its response to the Presidential Regulation on July 25 last year, when the bill was still in the draft stage. Google threatened to stop displaying news content on its platform if the pay-for-click clause was implemented. Google did a similar thing in Australia and Canada. 

If Google does that, then the Google search engine platform will stop showing content from media publishers in Indonesia. In addition to losing traffic, media publishers may lose billions of rupiah in income. But on the opposite end, Google will also face the potential of losing visitors due to a lack of content as a result of the absence of media publishers in its search engine. 

Source: Tempo