CIDISS. The government ensures that it does not only focus on import control policies through the increase in Article 22 Income Tax (PPh) rates on 1,147 imported commodities to help restore the weakening rupiah value against the United States dollar (US) and the current account. However, the government also supports increasing domestic export efforts to maintain the value of the rupiah.
Secretary General of the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) Haris Munandar said the increase in exports was quite important in hoisting the strengthening of the rupiah. At present, he continued, the government prioritizes increasing exports through the five manufacturing industry sectors included in the Making Indonesia 4.0 program.
The five are automotive, textile and footwear, electronics, chemistry, and food and beverage industries. Haris said, we have already had five priority industry sectors 4.0, we will push it forward.
Increased exports will also be encouraged in the natural resource-based industry sector. The reason, the level of domestic content (TKDN) in natural resource-based industries is still quite high.
In addition, the Ministry of Industry also seeks to encourage the provision of subsidies for export credit interest rates for the industry. Later, the interest rate on export credit from the original 6% will be reduced to 2% -3% through domestic banks.
With this encouragement, Haris targets export growth from the manufacturing industry to reach 5.5-5.7% this year. Haris said, if possible 6%, but it is hard in the current condition.
Haris said that this export impetus is impossible to overcome the weakening of the rupiah if it is not offset by the entry of export proceeds (DHE) into the country. The reason is that all this time many DHE have been parked abroad.
Therefore, the Ministry of Industry will encourage export-based industries to use domestic banks to make letters of credit (L / C). Haris said that because one of the most appropriate ways to overcome the rupiah turmoil is how we encourage exports, but it must be accompanied by foreign exchange into the country first.
The government must continue to monitor to maintain the trade deficit. One of the steps that the government can take to stabilize the rupiah exchange rate is to reduce imports and support the strengthening of exports. This step aims to keep the public from switching to domestic products. Another method taken by the government is to keep the budget stable and increase exports. All these steps are carried out aimed at maintaining national economic fundamentals.
By: M. Irfandi *)
