Government Asked To Implement Social Commerce Tax Regulations

JAKARTA - Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) researcher Nailul Huda hopes that the government can impose tax regulations related to sales through social commerce.

"With the assumption that social commerce, which is often used as a substitute for buying and selling platforms, they should be in the same industry as e-commerce. The government, especially the Ministry of Trade, must ensure regulations such as taxes for e-commerce and social commerce fair, are treated at the same level of the field," Nailul said as quoted by Antara, Thursday, June 22.

Nailul said that sales through social commerce such as TikTok Shop need to be taxed, as will be applied to e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Lazada, and Blibli.

Given that the potential for e-commerce and social commerce businesses is very large and continues to grow. Many business actors are starting to take advantage of transactions through TikTok Shop because they are considered cheap, the results are large," he said.

Mirae Asset Sekuritas analyst Jennifer A Harjono said the phenomenon of shopping entertainment (scoppertainment) associated with social commerce is becoming increasingly prevalent with the ease of social media users accessing goods through content and making transactions in real time.

"Because it is integrated with social media, TikTok (social commerce) is easier to adjust its behavior users through the content presented on for your page users to trigger their shopping wishes. This is what makes TikTok the largest social commerce that has more and more existence," said Jennifer.

Last week, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew met directly with the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan to discuss plans for investment and development of TikTok's business in Indonesia.

For information, as a social commerce, Tiktok Indonesia users are in second highest ranking in the world after the United States (US) of 112.97 million users in April 2023.

Meanwhile, 2022 social commerce data by DSINnovate noted that the social commerce market in Indonesia has reached 8.6 billion US dollars, with an estimated annual growth of around 55 percent, and is estimated to reach 86.7 billion US dollars in 2028.