Vaccine Imports Continue, Until June Enters 53 Million Doses Worth Rp4 Trillion

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The government is known to continue to import COVID-19 vaccines to meet domestic needs.

From the report of the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) it was revealed that until June 9, 2022 the value of imported vaccines was recorded at Rp. 4 trillion.

Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said that this figure was used to bring in more than 53.4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

"This is part of the fiscal policy in PC-PEN in the health sector," he said through a virtual channel while giving an explanation to reporters about the realization of the latest APBN some time ago.

According to the Minister of Finance, the import of vaccines is one of the national priority programs in handling the pandemic.

To support this, the government decided to provide tax incentives in the form of exemption from customs and excise levies.

"Fiscal incentives for vaccine imports have reached IDR 831 billion so far," he said.

The state treasurer also revealed that the same facility also applies to imports of medical devices (alkes) with the aim of handling the pandemic, amounting to Rp. 197 billion.

"The government also provides fiscal incentives to businesses in bonded zones and import facilities for export purposes (KITE) amounting to Rp. 13.6 billion," he said.

Thus, the total incentives in the customs and excise sector as of early June amounted to IDR 1.04 trillion (specifically for handling the COVID-19 pandemic).