New rules on film duties to ease burden on importers1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteFinance Minister Agus Martowardojo hinted at important points of a much-awaited new regulation on import duties for foreign films, which would simplify import procedures, with the complete rules to be announced this week.
According to the revised Finance Minister regulation (PMK) already in effect since Thursday, film importers would pay import duties of Rp 21,000 (US$2.43) to Rp 22,000 per minute for each copy of a film they brought into the country, Agus said Friday.
Bambang Brodjonegoro, acting chief at the ministry’s fiscal policy office (BKF), told The Jakarta Post the complete version of the regulation would be released this week.
Previously, importers had to pay an ad valorem tax of a certain percentage of the value of tickets sold for the film copy – a royalty policy strongly criticized by film importers who claimed it complicated calculations as it depended on sales instead of determining tax costs upon arrival of the imported film copies.
The old rules resulted in importers owing billions of rupiah of royalty fees and sent three local importers – two of which were key importers of Hollywood films – to the tax court. The importers refused to pay the taxes and penalties, claiming they were not aware of them.
