Indonesia Hikes Tobacco Excise Tax

Indonesia will hike tax rates on tobacco products in 2015 to ensure that the nation achieves its excise tax revenue target, the Government said on October 26.

In accordance with an agreement between the Government and the House of Representatives in September this year, the average excise tax on tobacco products in 2015 will increase by 8.72 percent.

However, not all categories of Indonesian cigarette producers and importers will be subject to the same tax rates. For example, hand-rolled clove cigarettes, the sales of which have been suffering in recent years, are not to be subject to an excise rate hike at all.

Acting Head of the Fiscal Policy Office Andin Hadiyanto added that increasing the tobacco excise tax rates has been done "to achieve a revenue target for 2015 of about IDR120 trillion (USD9.8bn)." Enditem