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View all search resultsGovt to impose export tax on gold to pursue revenue, industry growth
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An employee places gold bars in Kazakhstan's National Bank vault on Sept. 30, 2016, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. (Reuters/Mariya Gordeyeva)
T
he government plans to impose exit duties on gold next year in a bid to increase state revenue and keep more of the precious metal inside the country for saving or further processing.
The Finance Ministry’s economy and fiscal strategy director general Febrio Kacaribu revealed the plan during a hearing on Monday with House Commission XI, which oversees financial affairs, in which he said the regulation was to take effect this month.
Febrio told reporters after the hearing that the authority could net a “minimum” Rp 1.5 trillion (US$89.6 million) to Rp 2 trillion in extra state revenue from the duty every year, though the amount would also depend on the commodity’s price.
The rate imposed would vary by product, and the government wants “to get a windfall profit too” when prices are high, Febrio said, hence the duties would be 7.5 to 12.5 percent at a gold price below $3,200 per troy ounce but 10 to 15 percent at a higher price.
“First, gold mines must result in [state] revenue, and second, the adding of value to the natural resource must happen in Indonesia. That’s why we want to push for downstream development by opening a [new] gold smelter in Indonesia,” Febrio said, without elaborating.
The archipelago has the world’s fourth-largest unmined gold reserves at an estimated 3,600 tonnes, behind only Australia, Russia and South Africa, according to a January publication from the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Despite the large reserves, Indonesia possesses only two gold smelters with combined production capacity of about 80 tonnes annually; one is owned by PT Amman Mineral Internasional in West Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara and the other by PT Freeport Indonesia in Gresik, East Java.
