REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - The Indonesian government will offer duty-free incentives worth 547.66 billion IDR to 15 import-intensive industrial sectors this year, as per a finance ministry regulation. "Government-borne import duties are refunds on duties that industries pay to import several components that still cannot be produced domestically," the Industry Ministry's director general for high-technology priority industries, Budi Darmadi, said on Friday.
"The manufacturing industries that receive such benefits are engaged, among other things, in the production of motor vehicle components, electronic goods, ships, heavy-duty equipment, thermal power plant transformers, fertilizers, telecommunication equipment, stationary, and optic fibers," he added.
Under the finance minister`s regulation No.96/2012-No.110/2012, the duty-free incentives are also available to manufacturers of plastic packages, special ink (toner), trains and synthetic resin. "The incentives are even granted to aircraft repair/maintenance companies and manufacturers of intravenous products. In fact, the greatest chunk of the government-borne import duties, 147.35 billion IDR, from the automotive component industry. The aircraft repair and maintenance industry gets 109.67 billion IDR," Budi stated.
He said the government provided these incentives in a bid to boost the growth of domestic industries amid global economic challenges. "The facilities will hopefully improve the competitive edge of domestic industries and serve as a stimulus to industrial growth," Budi added and noted that the duty-free incentives particularly benefited industries which used raw materials that were not available in Indonesia.