Government Implements Gold Exit Customs Policy, Economists Say They Are More Focused On Maintaining National Supply, Not Pursuit Of State Revenue

JAKARTA - Senior Economist of the University of Indonesia, Fithra Faisal Hastiadi, assessed that the government's implementation of gold exit duties aims to maintain domestic gold needs and prevent inflationary pressures.

Fithra explained that currently domestic gold demand continues to increase so there needs to be policies that ensure its availability in the national market.

"So when the demand is not able to be fulfilled, what happens is inflation, that is actually the main target," he said.

However, he assessed that gold duty is not intended to increase state revenue, but the goal of this policy is more to maintain the supply of gold so that it is not too much exported.

"Actually, if I look at Pak Purbaya's (Minister of Finance), it is more in the direction of how the economy grows and then revenue increases. This is not intended to increase state revenue, but to then maintain gold commodities, so there is no need to export a lot, but while domestic demand is also a lot," he said.

Fithra also said that in the future the government needs to regulate tariff and non-tariff barriers to strengthen the investment climate and President Prabowo Subianto has seen these challenges

According to him, so that in the coming year international trade and investment flows are expected to be more flexible and attractive.

He added that the potential for significant domestic economic growth is an attraction for foreign investors, although they are currently still waiting and seeing.

"If we look at, for example, in the bond market, they are still out, there is still a net outflow. But on the other hand, the interesting thing is that the yield rate of our domestic bonds is actually low and if we look at it compared to macro assumptions this year, the government's macro assumption for bond yields is above 7 percent," he said.

"Sekarang 6,3 persen, 6,2 persen bahkan sebelumnya sempat di bawah 6 persen itu menandakan bahwa sebenarnya dari sisi likuiditas domestik itu cukup ample, tapi di sisi yang lainnya kita juga menantikan sikap wait dan see dari foreign investor itu untuk masuk ke market kita," tambahnya.

Fithra hopes that next year Indonesia's investment climate, both in the financial sector and in the real sector, will improve along with the re-entry of foreign investors.

Previously, the Minister of Finance, Purbaya Yudhi Sadive, planned to start implementing out duties for gold exports by 2026.

He explained that there are a number of considerations that underlie the policy plan, one of which is, Indonesia is currently the fourth largest gold reserve country in the world, but its supply continues to decline.

On the other hand, he added that global gold prices showed a significant spike, which in November 2025 had reached 4,076.6 US dollars per troy ounce.

"At the same time, global gold prices show a sharp upward trend of reaching 4,076.6 US dollars per troy ounce in November 2025, in line with the priorities for developing the Indonesian bank's bullion ecosystem, the need for domestic gold supply is increasing. Therefore, the duty policy instrument is needed to come out to support the availability of gold supply in Indonesia," he said in a working meeting with Commission XI DPR RI, Monday, December 8.

He added that Article 2A of the Customs Law stipulates that outbound duties can be enforced to ensure domestic needs are met, protect the sustainability of natural resources, anticipate rising export commodity prices in the global market, and maintain price stability in the country.

So that the downstream process is more optimal, Purbaya explained that the output duty tariff structure will be made tiered, with the tariff for upstream products higher than downstream products.

In addition, he added that gold export supervision will also be tightened through regulations prohibiting exports of gold products with levels below 99 percent.

Meanwhile, 99 percent or better gold in the form of bars, ice, and export granul can only be done after the company submits a surveyor report (LS).

Purbaya said that this policy was prepared to ensure that every gold commodity that came out of Indonesia had its levels and accuracy verified, so that export supervision and governance could be increased.

"Instrumen agar keluar diharapkan dapat mendukung optimalisasi pengawasan good governance dalam transaksi ekspor emas," jelasnya.

Purbaya said that the imposition of gold duty is aimed at encouraging increased added value in the country through the downstream process, meeting the needs of gold in the bullion bank ecosystem, strengthening supervision of governance of gold transactions, and increasing state revenues.