Minister Of Finance Sri Mulyani: Export Results Must Be EffECTed So To Improve Foreign Exchange Reserves

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani emphasized that Indonesia needs to maintain that the export results are reflected in increasing foreign exchange reserves because this illustrates the resilience of the domestic economy.

This is the basis for the government's plan to expand regulations related to export earnings foreign exchange (DHE) which initially only involved minerals and natural resources (SDA).

"We are in the process of discussing, first regarding its expansion and the second regarding the form of incentives needed," Sri Mulyani said at a press conference after a working visit to Cikarang Dry Port (CDP) in Bekasi Regency, West Java, last weekend, quoted from Antara, Monday, January 30.

He explained that the discussion was carried out because there was a difference between SDA export activities and the manufacturing industry which was planned to be subject to DHE rules. The manufacturing sector sometimes has to reuse the foreign exchange obtained to import raw materials.

Thus, these things must be considered in the plan to expand the DHE rules so that good goals do not result in bad consequences.

Regarding the incentive scheme, the State Treasurer stated that the placement of DHE funds in Indonesia for more than 6 months or up to 12 months will still be subject to tax rates according to the previous incentives. In addition, the returns provided by Bank Indonesia will also be more competitive than the placements in other countries.

"Therefore, exporters do not feel they have lost the opportunity from the foreign exchange funds they have. We respect that," he said.

Not only an incentive problem, Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency of the Ministry of Finance Febrio Kacaribu added that his party would also review the compliance of DHE reporting in special SDA accounts.

"We are studying this, we will fix Government Regulation (PP) Number 1 of 2019," said Febrio on the same occasion.

Not only that, he said he would also review the adequacy of incentives that have been given so far to ensure that export results, especially from SDA and outside SDA, can reflect the strength of the domestic economy, especially the stability of the rupiah exchange rate.