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E-commerce association calls for public test of new tax regulation
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Easy shopping: A small shopping cart sits on top of a laptop keyboard to illustrate the ease of e-commerce. (Shutterstock/File)
T
he Indonesia E-Commerce Association (idEA) has called on the Finance Ministry to carry out a public trial before fully enforcing a new tax regulation, particularly for the articles that deal directly with e-commerce businesses.
"The government plans to collect taxes for e-commerce, but the policy will affect the development of these businesses, particularly the marketplaces. Therefore, we want a public trial first,” said idEA chairman Aulia Ersyah Marinto on Tuesday.
He said that last week, the ministry had invited idEA to discuss the draft of a new tax regulation to collect 0.5 percent value added tax (VAT) from each seller.
According to the Director General of Taxation Regulation No. SE-62/PJ/2013, the VAT is to be collected from four kinds of e-commerce: online marketplaces, classified ads, daily deals and online retail.
For classified ads, the tax is to be collected from the rental fees sellers pay to rent online slots to offer their goods, while for online retail, where the owner of the website is also the seller, the VAT is to be collected from their transactions.
Meanwhile, for online marketplaces and daily deals, the VAT is to be collected from the business that rents online slots to sellers and from the transactions between registered buyers and sellers.
Many big e-commerce companies in Indonesia, such as Tokopedia, Lazada and Bukalapak, utilize the marketplace concept by providing online places for both buyers and sellers to make transactions. (bbn)
