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President: Similar Tax for Online and Offline Taxi Cabs

jokowiJAKARTA— President Joko Widodo approved a regulation of application-based taxi cab as outlined in the revised Regulation of the Minister of Transportation No. 32 on the Implementation of the Motor Vehicle Transport for People not in the Route. Approval of the President came after a meeting that presents a number of ministers on Friday, March 31, 2017.

The ministers, among others, Minister of Transportation (Mr Budi Karya Sumadi), the Minister of Finance (Ms Sri Mulyani Indrawati), and the Coordinating Minister of Martime (Mr Luhut Binsar Panjaitan). They met to discuss the setting of app-based taxi at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta.

Ministry of Transportation stated that the President gave some of the terms related to the application of these rules. The first requirement is the provision of a transition period for the application-based carriers to conform to those rules. For this requirement, the Ministry of Transportation will provide a period of three months commencing 1 April 2017 for cab providers to follow government rules.

The second condition is that during the transition period, the President requests the Ministry of Transportation to conduct a further study about the application of lower limit tariff and quota arrangements. “This is to prevent negative impact once the regulation is enacted even have an impact, such as illegal quotas,” said the Minister of Transport.

The President also addressed on the tax liability for providers of online taxi cabs. For this matter, the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Finance within three months will make a joint review.

The Minister of Finance Ms Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that, whatever the results of studies conducted by the Ministry of Finance with the Ministry of Transportation, she will ensure the taxation policy applied by the government to providers of online cabs with conventional taxis will be fair. (*)