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View all search resultsGovt to tighten export-receipt rules, curb lingering loopholes
In March, the government required natural resource exporters to lock up their receipts in the country for at least a year to boost the country's foreign reserves.
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Piles of coal are seen on barges on Aug. 16, 2022, in Samarinda, East Kalimantan. (AFP/Adek Berry)
T
he government plans to tighten rules on how natural resource exporters must keep their entire export receipts (DHE) starting at the turn of the year, aiming to close lingering loopholes that have allowed funds to leak offshore. However, experts warn that the stricter requirements could strain liquidity and unsettle investors.
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said on Monday that starting Jan. 1, 2026, “many” natural-resource exporters would be required to deposit their foreign-currency proceeds exclusively in state-owned banks to ease monitoring. This marks a significant shift from the current regulation, which allows exporters to deposit the funds in any local bank.
The change will introduce yet another revision to Government Regulation (PP) No. 36/2023, which was amended in March through PP No. 8/2025. The regulation aims to boost the country’s foreign reserves by requiring natural resource exporters to lock up their receipts in the country for at least a year. The only exception applies to oil and gas exporters, who need to retain only 30 percent of their proceeds for at least three months.
Aside from determining where the proceeds must be saved, the upcoming regulation will also cap the conversion of export earnings into rupiah at 50 percent, a limit not specified in the current rules. The effort is necessary to keep more foreign currency onshore, said Febrio Kacaribu, the Finance Ministry’s director general of economic and fiscal strategy.
Purbaya, however, noted that the conversion cap would apply only to “several tens of thousands of dollars,” with details still being finalized.
Officials say the changes are meant to close gaps in existing policy. While the current rules do not restrict conversion into rupiah, exporters commonly “exchange dollar proceeds into rupiah, move the funds to small banks, convert them back into dollars and then transfer them offshore,” Purbaya explained.
The goal of the new regulation, he added, “is to ensure that export earnings are truly effective so that the dollars onshore actually increase.”
