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Producers request 5% excise increase for light cigarettes
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Workers handle cigarettes at a factory in Surabaya, East Java. (thejakartapost.com/Wahyoe Boediwardhana)
T
he Association of Indonesian Light Cigarette Producers (Gaprindo) has said that the excise increase for light cigarettes should not be more than 5 percent because of ongoing economic slowdown in the country.
"Customs and excise is quite burdensome for industry players. This year, it rose by 10 percent, and even last year it rose by 15 percent," Gaprindo chairman Muhaimin Moefti said over the weekend as quoted by kontan.co.id.
The association also requested that the government review customs and excise rates every three to five years, instead of every year as done currently, said Muhaimin.
Separately, the Finance Ministry's customs and excise director general, Heru Pambudi, said the government did not plan to increase revenue for tobacco products and had even projected a decrease in production by 2 percent this year.
As of April alone, he added, his directorate recorded a decrease by Rp 200 million (US$15,018) of customs and excise revenue to Rp 29.4 trillion (US$2.20 billion) from the same period last year.
Of the figure, tobacco excise contributed Rp 16.4 trillion, which was Rp 400 billion lower than the figure in the same period last year. (yon/bbn)
