TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government will implement a ban on the export permit of copper concentrate in January 2025. The Director General of Customs and Excise of the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu), Askolani, estimated that the country will lose Rp10 trillion when the regulation is applied.

The Finance Minister's aide, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, explained that throughout 2024, export duty (BK) from copper concentrate reached around Rp10 trillion. Based on calculations by the Directorate General of Customs and Excise, it may even increase by the end of December. "This means that in 2025, we will not receive copper BK," she said in the APBN Kita press conference at the Ministry of Finance office, quoted on Monday, November 11, 2024.

In the future, the Director General of Customs and Excise will only focus on collecting export duty for crude palm oil (CPO). Askolani stated that the duty from CPO is currently dominant, with the country able to collect around Rp 5 trillion annually.

Askolani said that the ban on exporting copper concentrate aligns with President Prabowo's downstreaming program. The loss of copper BK, according to Askolani, will be compensated by other positive profits from a broader aspect. "This downstreaming will lead to additional investment by building smelters, which will certainly boost economic growth," she said.

The downstreaming program, especially for copper, is expected to increase revenues on the other side, such as taxes. The country targets new profits from value-added tax (VAT) and income tax (PPh) from the new industrial sector as the obligation to increase added value. "So there is a shifting impact from BK to taxes," she said.

According to Askolani, the export ban will lead to increased job opportunities. The government will seriously monitor its implementation next year.

The ban on raw mineral exports in Indonesia has been in place since January 12, 2014, in accordance with Indonesian Law Number 4 of 2009 regarding Mineral and Coal Mining. Companies must build smelters or mineral purification and processing centers to be able to export industrially.

The ban on exporting copper concentrate next year follows the prohibition of other raw minerals such as nickel and bauxite. Indonesia officially prohibited nickel ore exports as of January 1, 2020. While bauxite ore exports have been banned since June 2023.

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