The Today's Headlines section of Indonesia Investments is a regularly updated section which contains the latest information with regard to topics that are currently causing headlines in Indonesia's media. Most of our headlines cover political, economic and social matters. As a consequence of their recent nature, these topics may not have crystallized fully yet and can, therefore, lack a profound analysis. For publications with a more in-depth understanding of subjects, we refer you to our News, Financial or Business columns.
Biodiesel, which is a form of diesel fuel that is derived from plants or animals (in the case of Indonesia it mainly uses fatty acid methyl ether, FAME, which is derived from palm oil), has been on the political agenda of Indonesia since the 1990s when the first (in-depth) research was conducted by a number of state agencies.
On 17 January 2022 Statistics Indonesia (BPS) released the latest trade data of Indonesia. The data show that Indonesian exports remained high (near record-high territory) in December 2021, while imports into Indonesia even managed to set a new all-time record (with a huge jump in imports of raw materials and consumer goods suggesting that economic activity is strong, although this could be a temporary phenomenon in the context of Christmas and New Year festivities).
When – at the start of January 2022 – we heard Firman Bakri, Executive Director of the Indonesian Footwear Association (Asosiasi Persepatuan Indonesia, Aprisindo), say that Indonesia’s footwear exports are expected to hit an all-time high in full-year 2021, it caught us by surprise.
It is time to turn our attention to tax, again, as we detected a number of interesting developments in Indonesia (related to tax) over the past couple of months. First of all, something that is quite rare, Indonesia managed to collect more tax revenue in full-year 2021 than it targeted in the 2021 State Budget (APBN 2021).
