Govt meets revenue target on cigarette production<\/p>\n
Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The government has booked a higher-than-expected excise revenue
\nthis year due to strong cigarette production, but is seeing lower
\nrevenue from its customs service in the face of a recent slowdown
\nin imports and greater import duty cuts.<\/p>\n
The finance ministry's Director General of Customs and Excise,
\nEddy Abdurrachman, said on Wednesday state revenue from excise
\nhad for the full year of 2005 amounted to Rp 33.05 trillion (some
\nUS$3.3 billion), higher than a target of Rp 32.24 trillion.<\/p>\n
State revenue from customs, however, is estimated to reach
\nonly Rp 14.86 trillion, from a target of Rp 16.59 trillion.<\/p>\n
\"The figure for the excise revenue is final until the end of
\nthe year, as all excise payments are done two months ahead,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Eddy explained that the higher excise revenue was mainly the
\nresult of this year's higher-than-expected cigarette production,
\nwhich reached 220 billion cigarettes, or up 8 percent from 203
\nbillion cigarettes last year.<\/p>\n
This is despite the government's decision to raise in July the
\nretail price of cigarettes by 15 percent, raising concerns from
\nindustry players that domestic cigarette production might slump
\nto only 200 billion cigarettes as a result. The government had at
\nthe time estimated that the price hike would only decrease
\nproduction to 214 billion cigarettes.<\/p>\n
A cigarette retail price rise will enable the government to
\ngenerate more money as the excise duty it charges on cigarette
\nmanufacturers is based on the final retail price.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, on the lower customs revenue, Eddy said that this
\nwas due to a declining trend in imports as the year wraps up.<\/p>\n
\"We have also given incentives in the form of import duty cuts
\n-- some to 0 percent -- to several industries in accordance with
\nour tariff harmonization policy,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Imports in October declined by 2 percent to $4.79 billion from
\nSeptember, although between January to October it has still shown
\na 29 percent increase to $48.63 billion as compared to the same
\nperiod last year.<\/p>\n
The government has through its tariff harmonization policy
\ngiven duty cuts to several imported products in line with its
\nmultilateral and bilateral free trade agreements.<\/p>\n
Customs and excise revenue makes up nearly 14 percent of the
\ngovernment's Rp 351.97 trillion in total state revenue from
\ntaxation for this year. The government has estimated that it may
\nmiss this target by some 1 percent.<\/p>\n
For next year, the government is expecting Rp 36.52 trillion
\nin excise revenue and Rp 16.57 trillion in customs revenue,
\nmaking up Rp 416.31 trillion in total tax revenue.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/govt-meets-revenue-target-on-cigarette-production-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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