Coordinating Minister Zulhas Ensures Domestic Food Products Are Not Subjected To 12 Percent VAT

Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan. (Photo: Theresia Agatha/VOI)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan ensured that the policy of increasing value added tax (VAT) to 12 percent by 2025 does not apply to goods related to food security/sufficiency.

"All food products do not increase domestically. Period," said Zulhas, Zulkifli Hasan's nickname, as reported by ANTARA, Monday, December 30.

Zulhas also ensured that the 12 percent VAT policy did not apply to goods related to food security, including fertilizers, seeds, and fertilizers.

"There is no increase in VAT whatsoever, specifically for all food in the country. All domestic food does not exist (increase)," he said.

For your information, the government has officially set VAT from 11 percent to 12 percent starting January 1, 2025.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said the 12 percent determination of VAT was in accordance with Law (UU) Number 7 of 2021 concerning Harmonization of Tax Regulations (HPP).

Apart from this policy, Airlangga said that the government would exempt VAT for some basic goods and essential goods (bupokting), including rice, chicken meat, beef, milkfish / bolu fish, skipjack fish / scales, bloating fish / bloating fish / banyar fish / banyar fish / asso-aso fish, tuna / bamboo fish, tuna fish, broiler eggs, green chilies, red chilies, cayenne pepper, shallots, and sugar.

Zulhas emphasized that the 12 percent VAT policy does not apply to all domestic food commodities.

"Fight rice, red rice, no increase in VAT, specifically for all food in the country," said Zulkifli Hasan.

President Prabowo Subianto chaired a limited meeting with a number of his ministers at the State Palace, Jakarta, Monday, to discuss government food security programs.

The meeting, which was attended by the Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan, Minister of Agriculture Andi Amran Sulaiman, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Bima Arya Sugiarto, Head of the National Food Agency Arief Prasetyo Adi, Minister of Trade Budi Santoso, and President Director of Perum Bulog Wahyu Suparyono, lasted for approximately 2 hours.

After the meeting, Coordinating Minister Zulhas said there were several important decisions, namely that there were no imports for rice, corn, sugar for consumption, and salt in 2025.

During the meeting, the President also ordered the purchase price of the government (HPP) of unhulled rice from farmers to increase from Rp6,000 to Rp6,500, then for the purchase reference price (HAP) corn also rose from Rp5,000 to Rp5,500.