In the revision, there will be the same treatment for ship produced in Batam compared to other countries’ product entering Indonesia. The move will be taken because government realized that the ship producers from the island cannot compete with Singapore and China.
Moreover, finance ministry also realized that the importers use Batam or Singapore as places to prevent anti-dumping tariff.
“There is a commodity issue that is estimated carrying out dumping practices. So that will be consequences in the form of anti-dumping tariff imposed on the commodity,” said Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati after the meeting.
Even so, she doesn’t want the policy to give another pressure to domestic market. Especially, some commodities in the anti-dumping tariff category are also raw material. The new policy, expects Indrawati, will give a conducive condition for domestic industry.
Not just that, officials also discussed on how the import revenue tax will not disrupt domestic competitiveness and investment climate.
Earlier, the Head of the Investment Coordinating Board Thomas Lembong revealed the pressure of global trade, especially trade war, affected investment in developing countries, including Indonesia. Investors tend to hold back even to withdraw their investment.
Therefore, Indonesia needs expansion in countries that have potential as partners in exports and investment. Lembong explained, potential countries for export purposes and added investment to the country, among others, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
In line with that, the government is also studying Indonesian commodities that have potential exports to these countries, one of which is palm oil. Furthermore, he said, Indonesia’ textile, wood and pulp products also had the opportunity to penetrate the African, South Asian and Middle Eastern markets.
Written by Staff Editor, Email: theinsiderstories@gmail.com
