T

he Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) expects to begin its three-hour permit service in November to cater for capital-and labor-intensive investments following the recently launched second economic package aimed at cutting red tape and boosting investment.

The board issued a regulation on Oct. 1 outlining the technicalities of the service, according to a statement by the BKPM.

It stipulates that investments worth more than Rp 100 billion (US$6.79 million) or projects that could employ more than 1,000 workers in industrial estates should be able to process their preliminary permits at the BKPM'€™s one-stop integrated service (PTSP) in just three hours.

The relevant permits are the principal business license from the BKPM, company deeds including legalization by the Law and Human Rights Ministry and taxpayer number (NPWP) issuance.

BKPM deputy for investment services Lestari Indah said on Sunday that the regulation would be followed up by recruiting in-house notaries to draw up companies'€™ deeds.

'€œWe do hope investors can start using the service in early November,'€ she said over the phone.

She added that the new process would require the proposed companies'€™ shareholders to be physically present during the signing of the deeds before an in-house notary.

Otherwise, they could grant power of attorney letters to their proxies to sign the deeds.

After the deeds and their legalization are issued, the PTSP would process the NPWP numbers online.

'€œWe have coordinated with the taxation directorate regarding the process,'€ she said, adding that the PTSP already had several in-house tax officials.

Lestari went on to say that under the new regulation, permits could be used as a construction license if the project locations were within certain industrial areas determined by the BKPM. Investors could procure other required permits simultaneously with their project construction work.

Currently the BKPM is discussing with relevant parties, including local administrations, to determine the possible industrial areas.

With the new three-hour procedure, the BKPM now offers two kinds of permit procurement services. The regular procedure allows investors to get a principal license from the BKPM within three days while the company deeds and NPWP numbers are issued separately.

'€œThe three-hour service allows investors to process those permits at the PTSP office only,'€ said BKPM head Franky Sibarani.

The fast-track service policy was announced by Franky on Sept. 29 during the launch of the government'€™s second economic policy package.

Besides the three-hour service for companies in industrial areas, the policies also range from speedier handling of permits for the forestry industry, scrapping taxes for ship, train and aircraft producers, setting up bonded logistics centers and cutting taxes on time deposits for compliant exporters that report their earnings to the central bank.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said the central government would also instruct regional administrations to cut red tape so that Indonesia would become an investment-friendly country.

The second policy package follows the first one announced by the government in early September with the aim of boosting the country'€™s sluggish economic growth, which stood at 4.67 percent in the second quarter of this year, a rate not seen since 2009. (prm)