Ministry Of Trade Bans Social Commerce Like TikTok Shop Selling, Can Only Promotion

The Minister of Trade (Mendag) and General Chair of PAN Zulkifli Hasan alias Zulhas. (Between)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) has decided to ban social commerce platforms such as TikTok Shop selling. This type of platform can only promote goods or services without opening transaction facilities.

"Social commerce can only facilitate the promotion of goods or services, no direct transactions, direct payments, no longer allowed, he can only be promoted," said Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan alias Zulhas after a meeting chaired by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) at the Presidential Palace Complex, Jakarta, Monday, September 25.

Zulhas analogized social commerce platforms such as only television, which can be used to promote goods or services, but cannot be used for transactions.

"(Social commerce) can't sell, can't accept money, so he's kind of a digital platform, his job is to promote it," he said.

Social commerce regulations will be contained in a new regulation that revises the Regulation of the Minister of Trade (Permendag) Number 50 of 2020. Zulhas said the new regulation from the revision of the candyag will be signed on Monday, September 25 this afternoon.

In the revision of the memandag, Zulhas said, the government will also strictly separate the social commerce and social media platforms.

"There is no social media, this has nothing to do with it, so it must be separated. So the algorithm is not all controlled, and this prevents the use of personal data, what it's called, for business purposes," he said.

Furthermore, said Zulhas, what will be regulated in the revision of the memandag is the positive list or list of items that are allowed to be imported. He gave an example that one of the items that cannot be imported is batik.

"In the past, there were negative lists. Now (positive lists) are allowed, others are not allowed, will be regulated. For example, batik, made in Indonesia, here are many," he said, quoted by Antara.

Imported goods, said Zulhas, will also receive the same treatment as domestic goods. For example, imported food must have provisions for halal certification, while skin care or beauty goods must have a permit from the Indonesian BPOM.

"If the goods are electronic, there must be a standard. So the treatment is the same as those in the country or offline," he said.

The revision of the memandag will also prohibit the sale of imported goods below the price of 100 US dollars or equivalent to Rp1.54 million (current exchange rate of Rp15,400 per US dollar).

"(Revision of the Permendag stipulates) it is not allowed to act as a producer. The last thing is if we import, we have one transaction of US $ 100 at least," said Zulhas.