Indonesia
1.3 Indonesia Customs Information
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Duties and Tax Exemption

For contact information regarding government custom authorities, please follow the link below: 

4.1 Indonesia Government Contact List

Indonesia is a member state of the World Customs Organization (WCO), having ratified the Convention establishing a Customs Co-operation Council on 30-Apr-1957. This Convention entered into force on 4th November 1952.

The only international body of Customs law that contains a specific chapter binding states to facilitate the work of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations in implementing humanitarian assistance is the revised Kyoto Convention on the Simplification and Harmonization of Customs Procedures (with its Annex J-5 on the Special Procedure for Relief Material). Indonesia has not signed/ratified this Convention. They also have neither signed nor ratified the Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations.

In the event of an emergency, all humanitarian aid organizations must liaise with BNPB (National Agency for Disaster Management) for all topics including customs and excise, BNPB then will decide if any specific measures end exemption should apply.

Indonesia’s export import activities have an online system called Indonesia NSW, http://www.insw.go.id. The system enables trader to submit regulatory documents through the internet. This has resulted in the procedure to get license such as customs declarations, applications for import/export permits, and others from related Government of Agency (GOA) to be simplified.

Emergency Response:

[Note: This section contains information which is related and applicable to 'crisis' times. These instruments can be applied when an emergency is officially declared by the Government.  When this occurs, there is usually a streamlined process to import goods duty and tax free.]

In the following table, state which of the following agreements and conventions apply to the country and if there are any other existing ones

Agreements / Conventions Description

Ratified by Country?

(Yes / No)

WCO (World Customs Organization) member

Yes 30 Apr 1957

Annex J-5 Revised Kyoto Convention

Yes 03 Dec 2004

OCHA Model Agreement

No 

Tampere Convention (on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations)

No 

Regional Agreements (on emergency/disaster response, but also customs unions, regional integration)

Indonesia is a member of ASEAN

Exemption Regular Regime (Non-Emergency Response)

[Note: This section should contain information on the usual duties & taxes exemption regime during non-emergency times, when there is no declared state of emergency and no streamlines process (e.g. regular importations/development/etc.).]

Any humanitarian organization is allowed to be operational in the country as long as they are registered and approved by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia. All organizations must follow the rules and regulations with no exceptions. All UN agencies and NGOs working in the country may obtain duty exemption on their humanitarian cargo, however the process will not necessarily be the same due to the individual agreements with the Government and whether the goods are arriving under normal country conditions or during emergency situation.

For humanitarian cargo, duty & tax exemptions are issued by the State Secretariat Office (Ministry of State Secretariat) on shipment-by-shipment basis after submitting a form called a “PP 19”. This PP19 form derives from Government Regulation No.19 which officially states that humanitarian aid can be imported into the country duty and tax free. Each organization must also have a local government counterpart who, in return, will facilitate the importation process of goods.

For commercial cargo, all goods are subject to duties and taxes and, if there is an exception to this rule, it must be obtained through Ministry of Finance.

Organizational Requirements to obtain Duty Free Status

United Nations Agencies

 A valid MOU is requested for the exemption procedure.

Non Governmental Organizations

 NGOs must be registered and have a MOU signed with the government.  Tax exemption issues should be documented in the MOU to facilitate the clearing procedures.

Exemption Certificate Application Procedure

Duties and Taxes Exemption Application Procedure

Generalities (include a list of necessary documentation)

 

Before the commodities arrive to Indonesia, a formal notification of arrival must be submitted to the State Secretariat.
A complete set of original shipping documents must be submitted with the PP19 form, including;

  • Bill of Loading for the port
  • Air Waybill for the airport
  • Certificate of Origin
  • Commercial invoice
  • Packing List
  • Phyto-sanitary Certificate for foods.

The PP19 validation process takes at least 7 working days. It should normally be initiated before the vessel’s arrival.
In parallel, the proper ministries must be approached to issue Import Permits, which is the specific authorization applying to the respective commodities (e.g. Ministry of Health for drugs, Ministry of Communications for Radio Equipment).
The validated PP19 form, the Import Permit and a second set of original shipping documents are then transmitted to the clearing agent who will be dealing with the customs authorities, usually UN agencies and NGOs do not have the proper identification number required to complete the process with customs officials.
To speed up the clearance of shipment it is recommended that both customs clearance agents and forwarding agent are the same.
The clearing agent processes the documents to get the PIB (standing for Pemberitahuan Import Barang or Goods Importation Acknowledgement) from the customs authorities and pays the import taxes (if no exemption).
EDI are then processed by customs.
There are two lines at all entry points in Indonesia, which are the Green line and the Red line.
All cargo including humanitarian cargo can be randomly selected under the Red line, where the process of customs clearance will be more expensive, lengthy and subject to physical cargo inspection.
The customs officer has the sole authority to decide which line the cargo will be declared after the shipment arrival.
Normally the customs clearance process under the Green line will take from 3 to 5 working days if all documents are in order.
When the cargo is declared under Red line, it must be transported to a certain bonded area within the port of entry, and the port authorities will decide which area the cargo will be stored pending completion of the customs formalities.
Customs finally issue the SPBB (Surat Persetujuan Pengeluaran Barang – Letter of Approval for Releasing Goods) allowing releasing the cargo.
The whole process can take up to 3 weeks to complete.

It is duly recommended to anticipate the cargo arrival and to get support from the supervision ministry as it could facilitate and shorten the official procedures.

Process to be followed (step by step or flowchart)

For information on import procedures and Duties and Tax exemptions, please see the following documents:

Procedures for Exemption of Taxes and Duties for Importing Goods for International Agencies

Customs Procedure Chart

Exemption Certificate Document Requirements

Duties and Taxes Exemption Certificate Document Requirements (by commodity)

 

Food

NFI (Shelter, WASH, Education)

Medicines

Vehicle & Spare Parts

Staff & Office Supplies

Telecoms Equipment

Invoice

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

AWB/BL/Other Transport Documents

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Donation/Non-Commercial Certificates

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Packing Lists

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Yes, Original,

1 copy,

Applies to UN and NGOs

Other Documents

Halal Certificate for prepared food

 n/a

Import Permit issued by BPOM

(Certificate of Analysis is mandatory to get the import permit)

 n/a n/a 

Import permit

Additional Notes


Customs Clearance

General Information 

Customs Information

Document Requirements

Before the commodities arrive to Indonesia, a formal notification of arrival must be submitted to the State Secretariat.

A complete set of original shipping documents must be submitted with the PP19 form, including;

  • Bill of Loading for the port
  • Air Waybill for the airport
  • Certificate of Origin
  • Commercial invoice
  • Packing List
  • Phyto-sanitary Certificate for foods.

Embargoes

N/A

Prohibited Items

All goods categorized as B3, such as: narcotics, weapons, etc.

Those items are allowed for special purposes; medicine, military defence, etc.

General Restrictions

A rice ban has been active since 2004.  There are other foods with limited quotas such as sugar, salt and beef.

Customs Clearance Document Requirements

Customs Clearance Document Requirements (by commodity)

 

Food

NFI (Shelter, WASH, Education)

Medicines

Vehicles & Spare Parts

Staff & Office Supplies

Telecoms Equipment

D&T Exemption Certificate

Yes (PP19) - Original

Yes (PP19) - Original

Yes (PP19) - Original

Yes (PP19) - Original

Yes (PP19) - Original

Yes (PP19) - Original

Invoice

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

AWB/BL/Other Transport Documents

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Donation/Non-Commercial Certificates

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Packing Lists

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Yes - Original

Phyto-sanitary Certificate

Yes - Original

n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a

Other Documents

  • Import Permit
  • Halal Certificate
  • For rice, Waiver from the Ministry of Trade since rice ban from 2004

n/a

  • Import Permit issued by BPOM
  • (Certificate of Analysis is mandatory to get the import permit)
  • Import Permit

n/a

  • Import permit issued by the Ministry of Telecommunications (among other technical specifications and location of the equipment will be required)

Additional Notes

As it is a question of communication and coordination between governmental bodies, some major delays can occur in obtaining Import Permits. 

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