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techUK joins other tech and business trade associations in expressing its concerns with the Indonesian government‘s new Ministry of Finance Regulation No. 190.

Regulation 190 imposes new customs obligations on imports of intangible goods, such as digital tools, knowledge and content which is transmitted electronically across borders. These barriers to trade increase costs and uncertainty, which prevents the development of the Indonesian digital sector.

techUK, along with trade bodies from the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the US, condemn this move. Unfortunately, this will not just impact foreign businesses, but also limit the access of Indonesians to global services and hurt Indonesian MSMEs and start-ups. A joint study by the OECD and ECIPE show that this move will increase prices and social welfare costs, decrease GDP, and leave Indonesia at risk of retaliatory trade measures, which may not be digitally-based.

We urge the Government of Indonesia to provide greater clarity on the coverage of the intangible goods that are subject to customs duties and the procedural details of the implementation  such as a timeline.

If Indonesia were to reverse these counterproductive measures, and engage in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and WTO e-commerce tariff moratorium, the Indonesian digital sector would see a much greater level of investment.

Please find the full letter here.

If members have any questions, please reach out to the techUK trade team via daniel.clarke@techuk.org