Entrepreneurs Get Ready! Plastic And Sweetened Drinks Excise Charges Effective From 2023

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) is said to continue to make strategic efforts to expand the tax base in order to optimize the state revenue sector.

Most recently, Sri Mulyani's ranks plan to immediately implement excise levies on plastic goods and also sweetened drinks sold to the market.

This was conveyed directly by the Director General (Dirjen) of Customs and Excise Ministry of Finance Askolani to reporters today. According to him, the imposition of levies on these two business fields will certainly not apply this year.

"It seems that by looking at the current developments, there is a possibility that we can bring it to 2023. But we will continue to monitor this in 2022 until the end of the year," he said through a virtual channel on Wednesday, April 20.

Askolani added that the decision not to impose excise on plastics and sweetened drinks in the near future was influenced by the condition of the national economy.

"Of course we will always monitor the condition of the economy, so look at the balance of how we can encourage economic recovery and also look at business actors and our community," he said.

Meanwhile, throughout 2022, the government will prioritize focusing attention on the design of regulations.

"At least we will complete the regulations that will be carried out at the ministry, so that we can monitor while looking at the state of the state budget, economic conditions and of course business actors comprehensively," he asserted.

According to VOI's records, the regulations for the withdrawal of excise on plastics and sweetened drinks were previously planned to take effect this year according to the 2022 State Budget Law in the derivative regulation of Presidential Regulation 104/2021.

The Belied mandates levies on sweetened drinks such as packaged tea drinks, soda, coffee, energy drinks, and concentrates of Rp. 1,500 to Rp. 2,500 per liter.

Meanwhile, for plastic excise, a tariff of Rp. 30,000 per kilogram or Rp. 200 per sheet of plastic is imposed.

However, the government decided to postpone the implementation of this policy with the aim of providing space for business actors to be able to continue to increase production activities, while at the same time maintaining people's purchasing power in the midst of economic recovery efforts.

For information, on this occasion also presented the realization of the state budget until the period March 2022. It was stated that the customs and excise revenue sector was recorded at Rp. 79.3 trillion. This notch rose 27.3 percent when compared to March 2021 which amounted to Rp. 62.3 trillion.