Cigarette productions fell, reduce excise revenues

JAKARTA. The decline in cigarette productions has led the target of the customs and excise revenues will not be achieved this year. It is predicted that the actual customs and excise revenues by the end of 2016 will be only Rp 178 trillion, or 96.8% of the target of the 2106 Revised State Budget (APBN-P) that amount to Rp 183,96 trillion.

Therefore, there will be a Rp 5.96 trillion shortfall on the customs and excise revenues in this year. Director of Revenues and Strategic Planning at Directorate General of Customs Aprianto Sugeng said that the target of excise revenues in this year is only Rp 144 trillion-Rp 145 trillion. Therefore, there will be Rp 3.1 trillion-Rp 4.1 trillion shortfalls from the target of excise revenues in 2016 that amount to Rp 148.1 trillion.

The projection on the realization of excise revenues has included the lower excise of tobacco products. Because, the cigarette production along this year has dropped. "The number of cigarette production this year fell by 0.8%-1.4% compared with last year," Sugeng told KONTAN, Monday (5/12).

The lower excise revenues have not yet included the plastic products excises. Actually, potential revenues of plastic excises, which amount to Rp 1 trillion, has been included in the 2016 State Budget.

According to Sugeng, the realization of import duties revenues was predicted to be only Rp 31.35 trillion of the targets of Rp 33.4 trillion. The shortfalls will likely be driven by the lower impor activities in this year. This year, imports are expected to fall by 17% compared with the last year.

Meanwhile, the export duties revenues are expected to be Rp 2.9 trillion, higher than the target of 2016 Revised State Budget that amount to Rp 2.5 trillion. The prediction was affected by the increases in the prices of some of Indonesia's main export commodities such as coal and palm oil.

The potential of shortfalls in duties and excise revenues were higher than the previous expectations. Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati once predicted that the potential shortfalls of excise revenues in 2016 may reach Rp 2 trillion. Meanwhile, Director General of Customs and Excise Heru Pambudi once predicted that the shortfalls in import duties may reach about Rp 1 trillion.

According to the data of Directorate General of Custom and Excise, the realization of duties and excise revenues as of 30 November 2016 was only Rp 133.5 trillion or 72.57% of the target of 2016 Revised State Budget. This is 3.61% lower than the achievement in the same period in 2015 that amounted to Rp 138.5 trillion.

In a more detail manner, the excise revenues fell by 4.75% to Rp 102.2 trillion compared with the same period in 2015. The number consists of the excise revenues of tobacco products, ethyl alcohol, as well as food and beverages that contain alcohol that amounted to Rp 97.6 trillion, Rp 147 billion, and Rp 4.4 trillion, respectively.

Meanwhile, the realization of import duties revenues as of 30 November 2016 fell by 26.43% to Rp 20.6 trillion, while the realization of export duties revenues dropped by 18.75% compared with the same period in 2015 to Rp 2.6 trillion.

According to Sugeng, normally the customs and excise revenues in December will be higher than the average revenues in the previous month that are mainly supported by the excise revenues of tobacco products. “Cigarette production is normally higher at the end of the year. However, they will just settle the excises in December, therefore the settlement rate will 2.5 times higher than the monthly average,” he said.

The excise revenues at the end of the year will increase, following the plan to increase the cigarette excised in the next year. The cigarette producers usually purchase the excises in advance to avoid the higher excise. Director General of Customs and Excise Heru Pambudi also said that the institution will be more active in enforcement activities.

(Muhammad Farid/Translator)