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resident Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has approved the proposals from the Finance Ministry and other relevant government agencies to provide fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to help Indonesia mitigate the impact of the sharp fall in the rupiah against the US dollar.

Coordinating Economic Minister Sofyan Djalil said in Jakarta on Friday that the incentive program would include tax allowances, a temporary dumping duty, the extension of visa-free facilities to four more countries and an increased use of biofuels in the nation'€™s energy mix.

With regard to tax, the government planned to provide incentives for various companies, including companies that exported more than 30 percent of their total production and firms that reinvested their dividends in Indonesia, instead of repatriating them, he said.

In order to protect local companies from the influx of cheap foreign goods, the government would also impose a temporary anti-dumping duty on imported goods suspected of being sold below market prices, Sofyan said.

'€œIf imported goods are suspected of being sold below their fair price, we can immediately impose a temporary anti-dumping duty,'€ he said, adding that in normal procedures, an anti-dumping duty could only be imposed after a lengthy investigation had been conducted.

The government had planned to introduce the incentive program after it held a series of meetings, which involved the Finance Ministry, Industry Ministry, Office of Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister and Bank Indonesia (BI) among others on Friday, but they were delayed as the drafting of part of the program had not been completed. President Jokowi will instead officially launch the incentive program on Monday.

The tax allowances will involve the expansion of existing fiscal facilities while some of the other incentive programs are not really new, for example the visa-free facility, which was implemented late last year.

The chairman of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), Franky Sibarani said that as part of the program, export-oriented companies would be eligible to get a tax allowance in the form of a reduction of their taxable income so that they would be more competitive in competing with companies from other emerging countries in the world market.

In addition to the export-oriented companies, those companies with large foreign investments would also benefit from tax allowances, he said in a statement.

At present, Indonesia offers tax allowances that cut taxable income to 30 percent of total investment realized over six years, accelerates depreciation and amortization, charges tax of up to 10 percent for offshore taxpayers and carries forward losses from five to 10 years.

Franky said the fiscal incentives would be implemented in April.

'€œTextile, furniture and footwear producers will be given priority to benefit from the fiscal incentives, because they all meet the criteria,'€ he said.

In addition to such tax allowances, foreign companies that reinvest their profits in the country or for the production of import-substitute products would also be given an income-tax allowance for two years.

'€œThe BKPM will also give priority to food industries, especially those that support self-sufficiency in beef production,'€ he said in a statement.

Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said that the four policies were expected to help narrow the country'€™s current-account deficit (CAD) to between 2.5 percent and 3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), a view that is strongly held by the central bank as well.

Bank Danamon economist Dian Ayu Yustina lauded the government'€™s plans, even though she acknowledged that the policies were not new. '€œThey are just improvements and adjustments here and there,'€ she said.

She predicted that the tax incentive on dividends would be the policy that achieved the fastest results to help guard the rupiah compared to the others, with a large potential dollar supply from the dividend reinvestments.

The rupiah, Asia'€™s worst-performing currency this year, dropped 1.7 percent this past week to Rp 13,198 against the US dollar, prices from local banks show, the biggest weekly drop in seven months after the central bank signaled it would tolerate further weakness, reported Bloomberg.

'€œWe hope the government and Bank Indonesia seriously handle the exchange rate, since if it penetrates 14,000 rupiah per dollar it would cause chaos in the market,'€ said Iwan Lukminto, the vice president director of textile company PT Sri Rejeki Isman as quoted by Bloomberg.

'€” Grace D. Amianti contributed to the story