Indonesia Regulatory News
Tax, accounting, labor, corporate and safety changes that affect companies operating in Indonesia — with the practical consequence spelled out, and sources you can check.
New Finance Minister says tax refunds that are due "will be paid" — but DJP keeps its "selective" approach, under preliminary-refund rules tightened by PMK 28/2026
Tax refunds (restitusi) have become one of the most visible pressure points on businesses in Indonesia this year, and the new Finance Minister addressed them in his first budget press conference on Friday 18 September. Suahasil Nazara said refunds that are a business's right "will certainly be given," and that he has instructed Director General of Taxes Bimo Wijayanto to manage refunds — including communicating how they are being managed. That is reassurance, not a change of policy: three days earlier Bimo had described refund processing as "selective, more measured, more planned" and directed at sectors that are genuinely compliant, with several companies' claims under audit. The rules underneath have tightened too. PMK 28/2026, in force since 1 May, cut the ceiling for fast-track (preliminary) VAT refunds from Rp5 billion to Rp1 billion per period and added a Rp4.2 billion deliveries cap, voided every existing "compliant taxpayer" designation, and made re-qualifying harder. The same briefing put the budget deficit at Rp240.1 trillion (0.93% of GDP) at the end of August; the latest full-year outlook, published in July, is 2.85% of GDP — above the 2.68% budgeted and close to the 3% legal ceiling.
Read moreLabor coalition sets a 22 September deadline — a 50,000-motorcycle rally on Jalan MH Thamrin is planned for 24 September if it is not met
The labor coalition behind the orderly 10 September nationwide action has escalated its campaign over the Labor Protection Bill. After a dialogue with DPR's Commission IX working committee on Wednesday 16 September — held in place of an action it had planned for the 17th — the KBPBI coalition called the draft bill "very, very disappointing" and gave DPR and the government until Tuesday 22 September to respond. KSPSI, one of its leading members, says that if no concrete answer comes, workers will rally on Thursday 24 September on Jalan MH Thamrin around Bundaran HI and Grand Indonesia in Central Jakarta, with a target of 50,000 motorcycles converging from Tangerang, Bekasi, Karawang and Purwakarta. The rally is conditional and not yet confirmed — but if it goes ahead, it lands on the Thamrin–Sudirman corridor on a working Thursday. No Japanese Embassy advisory had been issued for the date as of writing.
Read moreForeign-worker permits move to a single OSS window with a five-day target, due to go live at the end of September
Three ministries — Manpower, Investment and Downstreaming/BKPM, and Immigration and Corrections — signed joint decrees (SKB) on 9 September 2026 to bring the permits an employer needs for a foreign worker into a single entry point on the OSS (Online Single Submission) system. Today the chain runs across three separate systems: RPTKA approval in the Manpower Ministry's SIAPkerja, then the VITAS visa and the ITAS or ITAP stay permit in Immigration's All Indonesia application. Under the SKB these are connected so an application starts once, on OSS. The government's stated target is around five days end to end, and officials are quoted as saying permits will be issued automatically if the deadline is exceeded. The integrated service is due to go live at the end of September 2026. We missed the signing in our sweeps that week; we are publishing it ahead of the go-live date, which is the date that matters for anyone with a foreign hire or a stay-permit renewal in the pipeline.
Read moreConstitutional Court deadline forces DPR to fast-track a standalone Labor Law by 31 October 2026
A 2024 Constitutional Court ruling requires Indonesia's labor provisions — currently folded into the 2023 Job Creation Law (UU Cipta Kerja) — to be separated into a standalone Labor Law by 31 October 2026, or the pre-omnibus 2003 Labor Law reverts into force. The bill has grown from an initial 19-chapter, 224-article working draft to a 20-chapter, 264-article text, and on 14 September the government formally submitted its consolidated position (DIM) to DPR, moving the bill into First-Level Deliberation with a dedicated Working Committee (Panja) now in place — while labor unions continue to push back on specific provisions, particularly outsourcing and fixed-term contracts. On 16–17 September the main labor coalition called the draft "very, very disappointing" and gave DPR and the government until 22 September to respond, or face a mass rally in Jakarta.
Read moreSearch for 8 people, including 5 journalists, officially halted after 10 days — it can reopen on new leads, and DNA results on a body found on Enggano Island are still pending
A speedboat carrying five journalists and three crew members lost contact near Anak Krakatau on Monday 7 September while covering the eruption. On Thursday 17 September, after ten days — the standard seven plus a three-day extension — Banten Governor Andra Soni announced that the joint search-and-rescue operation had been officially halted as no longer effective. None of the eight has been found. Thirteen floating objects recovered during the search (life jackets, tarpaulins, helmets, jerrycans) were all ruled out as belonging to their boat, the Arupadhatu 1. Separately, an unidentified male body found on Enggano Island (Bengkulu) on 12 September is being DNA-matched against the families by Bengkulu police; as of the latest reports, the results are still pending and police have not identified it as any of the eight. Basarnas says the operation will reopen if new clues or confirmed public reports emerge, and warning broadcasts to ships in the Sunda Strait continue. On 18 September the families held a flower-scattering ceremony at the pier the group departed from. This is separate from our articles on airport closures and the volcano's own eruption activity — it is a search-and-rescue story that happens to be connected to the same eruption.
Read moreAnak Krakatau eruption log: PVMBG says activity is back to a normal Strombolian pattern — alert level still holds at III (Siaga)
Our other articles on this crisis track airport closures and reopenings, the missing-journalists search, and earlier health/ashfall guidance — this entry is a standing, dedicated log of the volcano's own activity, with every discrete eruption Badan Geologi/PVMBG has recorded since the continuous eruption began on 4 September. The news remains encouraging: after eight confirmed discrete eruptions between 6 and 9 September (and lower-frequency activity on the 10th), PVMBG recorded no eruptions from 11 to 15 September, and on 17 September its head said activity has returned to a normal, short-duration Strombolian pattern and that the rebuilt cone is too low and gently sloped for a collapse to cause a tsunami. We found no eruption report for 16–17 September either, though an absence of reports is not the same as a confirmed quiet day. Anak Krakatau remains at Level III (Siaga), unchanged since 2 July 2026 — Badan Geologi has said deep volcano-tectonic earthquakes (an indicator of magma supply from depth) were trending up even as surface tremor eased, and a downgrade needs more than a few quiet days to justify. We will keep updating this log independently of the other articles, since the volcano itself is what determines whether the underlying hazard has actually passed.
Read moreExport-proceeds retention eases for some mining exporters from 1 September — but only if a shareholder is American, Chinese, Hong Kong, Australian or Canadian
Indonesia requires exporters of natural resources to park their export proceeds (DHE SDA) onshore: outside oil and gas, that means 100% of proceeds held for 12 months in a state-owned foreign-exchange bank — a significant working-capital lock-up. From 1 September 2026, Article 18A of PP 21/2026 (the second amendment to PP 36/2023) relaxes this for a narrow group: mining exporters may instead retain a minimum of 30% for a minimum of three months, and may use private and foreign banks rather than only state banks. The catch is the eligibility test. A company qualifies only if it is a PT in mining **and** has at least one shareholder from the United States, China, Hong Kong, Australia or Canada holding at least 10%. Japan is not on that list — so a Japanese-owned mining exporter stays on the 100%/12-month rule regardless of how large its stake is. The government identified 64 qualifying exporters out of 537 reviewed.
Read moreIndonesia replaces its Finance Minister again: Suahasil Nazara takes over from Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa after 371 days
President Prabowo Subianto replaced Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa with Suahasil Nazara on Monday 14 September 2026, in what local media count as the sixth reshuffle of the Merah Putih cabinet. Suahasil — Deputy Finance Minister since October 2019 and a former head of the Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) — was sworn in at the State Palace at around 15:30 WIB for the remainder of the 2024–2029 term, making him the third person to hold the finance portfolio under Prabowo after Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Purbaya. No official reason was given for the change, and Purbaya had been at a DPD working session on the 2027 draft state budget that same morning. Markets took it badly at first: the IHSG fell as much as 2.5% intraday before closing almost flat on the day, then dropped a further 1.13% on Tuesday, while the rupiah weakened on both days to around Rp17,694 per US dollar.
Read moreUpdate: labor's 10 September action across 30 regions went peacefully — the separate Cirebon march's outcome remains unconfirmed
Two unrelated actions landed on the same day, Thursday 10 September. The labor action — organised under the broader KBPBI coalition, which includes KSPSI, following KSPSI's own "apel siaga" instruction the week before — took place simultaneously in around 30 regions nationwide to press DPR and the government over the still-being-drafted Labor Protection Bill (see our separate article tracking the bill itself). It went peacefully: Jakarta's component gathered at City Hall and the DKI Jakarta DPRD building on Kebon Sirih, 25 worker representatives were received by the DPRD Speaker, and no violence or road closures were reported. Separately, a grassroots group called Aliansi Masyarakat Cirebon Melawan had a march planned for the same day specifically at the national DPR building in Jakarta, under the banner "Cirebon Menggugat," over unrelated demands (cutting lawmakers' pay and allowances, raising income for ride-hailing drivers, contract teachers and laborers). Despite an extensive search, we could not find a published report on how that march actually went — its outcome remains unconfirmed. No Japanese Embassy advisory was issued for the date.
Read moreUpdate: Soekarno-Hatta and four other airports reopen overnight — Garuda resumes Jakarta flights in phases from 8 September
Mount Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait, on Level III (Siaga) alert since 2 July 2026 with no escalation since, was in continuous lava-fountain eruption from 23:07 WIB on Friday 4 September 2026 — the strongest activity of the year, with satellite-detected ash at roughly 15 km — punctuated by further discrete eruptions at 03:53 and 07:10 WIB on Sunday 6 September, before the continuous phase itself paused at 00:04 WIB on 6 September; Badan Geologi says monitored ash dispersal is continuing regardless. BMKG data as of 04:00 WIB on 6 September showed the low-level ash cluster over parts of DKI Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Banten and West Java (as far as Bandung the previous evening), with ashfall confirmed on the Serang coast and in Bandar Lampung; Banten's governor and the disaster agencies in Banten and Lampung have asked residents in ashfall areas to wear masks outdoors. Soekarno-Hatta (CGK) has been closed under a series of revised NOTAMs (A3341/26 → A3344/26 → A3346/26 → A3348/26 and further overnight revisions) since 01:30 WIB on 6 September, extended repeatedly — briefly to eight airports on Sunday evening, back to six by Monday morning — as further paper tests kept returning positive; a fresh discrete eruption at 20:23 WIB Sunday night (58 mm amplitude) added to the picture, and the six core airports (Soekarno-Hatta, Halim Perdanakusuma, Radin Inten II, Budiarto, Pondok Cabe and Husein Sastranegara) remained closed into Monday morning, targeted to reopen at 08:59 WIB on 7 September. Conditions are being reassessed every few hours, and the Transport Minister has said reopening timing genuinely depends on BMKG's evolving analysis, not just a clean paper test — treat every reopening estimate here as provisional. Cumulative flight-impact counts have kept climbing: Soekarno-Hatta alone reported 923 flight movements and 119,215 passengers affected by 20:54 WIB Sunday, and Garuda Indonesia has cancelled all its Jakarta/Bandung/Lampung flights into Monday around noon. Volcanologists have stated the rebuilt cone is too small to trigger a tsunami. As of Monday afternoon, one of the eight airports (Atung Bungsu, Pagar Alam) has reopened after a negative paper test, while the remaining seven were extended to 18:00 WIB; InJourney Airports separately reports 2,300 flights and 268,539 passengers affected across its four managed airports since 5 September. By mid-afternoon, Soekarno-Hatta had tested negative for ash four times running, with three more airports also reporting clean results, yet the Transport Minister was still not rushing to reopen, citing a wind-direction reversal — a same-day, seemingly contradictory statement from Soekarno-Hatta's own spokesperson said testing was still positive. By evening, every remaining closed airport (Soekarno-Hatta, Halim, Radin Inten II, Husein Sastranegara, Budiarto, Pondok Cabe and Taufik Kiemas, plus a newly-closed small airport, Salakanagara at Tanjung Lesung) was extended once more, to 23:59 WIB, with the Coordinating Minister citing VAAC data on ash still sitting over Lampung/Banten/Jabodetabek rather than the paper test result. Overnight into Tuesday 8 September, the main closure story resolved: Soekarno-Hatta, Halim Perdanakusuma and Husein Sastranegara reactivated at 00:01 WIB, with Budiarto and Pondok Cabe following at 02:25 WIB, and Garuda Indonesia resuming Jakarta flights in phases from the same moment, each cleared by a fresh safety and airworthiness check. Of the nine airports closed at some point since the weekend, six are now open; Radin Inten II, Taufik Kiemas and Salakanagara remain shut with no confirmed reopening time. Cumulative impact over the multi-day closure stood at roughly 1,558–2,300 flights depending on which airport count is used. This entry is organised as a timeline; further updates will only follow if the remaining airports' status changes materially.
Read moreAnak Krakatau ash reaches inside Jakarta city — West Jakarta, Mega Kuningan and MRT stations dusted; BPBD DKI tells residents to wear medical masks outdoors
Beyond the airport closures already under way (see our separate article on Anak Krakatau's eruption and Soekarno-Hatta), ash from the volcano has been reported settling inside Jakarta city itself on the morning and early afternoon of Sunday 6 September 2026 — not just in the outer ring of Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi. Residents in West Jakarta and the Mega Kuningan business district reported dust on vehicles and surfaces, and social media photos showed TransJakarta bus shelters and MRT stations looking dustier than usual. BPBD DKI Jakarta says exposure inside the city is "thin" and can change with wind, but is asking residents to wear medical (not cloth) masks outdoors, seal up buildings, and reduce outdoor time for vulnerable groups. Jakarta's air quality index also read in the "unhealthy for sensitive groups" range that morning, though the monitored data does not attribute this specifically to volcanic ash rather than ordinary urban pollution.
Read moreWith Jakarta-area airports closed, here's how to still get in and out of Indonesia — Bali, Surabaya, Medan and Yogyakarta remain unaffected with direct Singapore/Kuala Lumpur flights
With Soekarno-Hatta and the other seven Jakarta-area/Sunda Strait airports closed on and off since 6 September (see our main article on the eruption and airport closures), the practical question for anyone needing to enter or leave Indonesia right now is which gateways still work. The ash cloud from Anak Krakatau covers Jakarta, Banten, West Java, Lampung and parts of South Sumatra and Bengkulu — it does not reach Bali, East Java, North Sumatra or Yogyakarta. Ngurah Rai (Denpasar/Bali), Juanda (Surabaya), Kualanamu (Medan) and Yogyakarta International Airport (YIA) have all been confirmed operating normally, with only knock-on schedule adjustments on their own Jakarta-bound flights — and all four carry standing scheduled international routes to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, not just emergency diversions. Separately, the government has activated five airports (Kertajati, Ahmad Yani/Semarang, Juanda, YIA and Adi Soemarmo/Solo) as 24-hour diversion hubs for flights that would otherwise have gone to the closed Jakarta-area airports, with free bus and Whoosh high-speed rail connections from the Jakarta area to Kertajati.
Read moreHealth Ministry activates emergency centres over Anak Krakatau ash — 3.3 million elderly "at risk," first two hospitalisations confirmed in Serang
Beyond the airport closures and the ashfall reaching Jakarta itself (see our other articles), the health response to Anak Krakatau's ash has escalated on 7 September 2026. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has told residents of affected areas to stay indoors unless necessary and to always wear a mask and eye protection outdoors, and the Ministry has activated its Health Emergency Operating Centre (HEOC) from the national level down to district/city health offices in Banten, DKI Jakarta and West Java, instructing puskesmas and hospitals to run 24 hours in case of a patient surge. The Ministry's Director for Vulnerable-Group Health Services says roughly 3.3 million elderly people across the five affected provinces (Lampung, Banten, DKI Jakarta and parts of West Java) face elevated health risk, citing the sharp silica content of volcanic ash as more dangerous to lungs, eyes and skin than ordinary dust. Banten's provincial health office has confirmed the first two hospitalisations — Serang residents referred for acute respiratory infection (ISPA) — while stressing that ISPA case volumes at community health centres remain stable overall. Jakarta's own air quality index climbed through the day, from 101 at 06:00 WIB to a projected peak of 156 in the evening.
Read morePMK 55/2026 tightens who can be a licensed tax consultant — and who can act as your taxpayer representative
Promulgated and effective 24 August 2026, PMK 55/2026 on Tax Consultants and Other Parties Acting as Taxpayer Representatives replaces PMK 111/2014 (as amended by PMK 175/2022). It sets 14 requirements for obtaining a tax consultant license — including Indonesian citizenship, a bachelor's degree, passing the tax consultant professional examination and competency test, and a five-year cooling-off period for former Ministry of Finance staff — and retires the SIKOP licensing portal in favour of a transitional system. It is the licensing counterpart to PMK 44/2026, which governs who may hold your power of attorney for tax matters.
Read moreDestry Damayanti sworn in as Bank Indonesia Governor — new leadership takes office for the 2026–2031 term
On 10 August 2026, President Prabowo Subianto formally submitted Destry Damayanti's nomination as the sole candidate for permanent Governor of Bank Indonesia to the House of Representatives (DPR), alongside candidates for Senior Deputy Governor and Deputy Governor. Update: on 27 August 2026, DPR's Commission XI approved by consensus Destry Damayanti as Governor, Aida S. Budiman as Senior Deputy Governor, and Solikin M. Juhro as Deputy Governor, all for the 2026–2031 term. The DPR plenary session ratified the appointments on 1 September 2026, and on 2 September 2026 all three were sworn in before the Chief Justice at the Supreme Court under Presidential Decree No. 92/P/2026 — Destry Damayanti is now formally Governor of Bank Indonesia.
Read moreUpdate: the 27 August rally near DPR turned violent overnight — one bystander killed, tear gas fired, tollgates closed — as part of a genuine wave of unrest across Indonesia in August 2026
August 2026 has been an active month for demonstrations across Indonesia, with real violence outside Jakarta even though no single Jakarta "mega demo" matched the more alarming rumors circulating online. On 11 August, protesters in Ilaga, Puncak (Papua Tengah) burned seven government buildings in a dispute over village-fund disbursement. In Jakarta, a student-led march on 18 August drew a deployment of 9,242 police personnel, and a Central Java coalition (AMPB) has maintained a continuous sit-in outside the DPR building since 21 August. On 26 August, the Japanese Embassy in Jakarta issued a formal advisory warning that thousands were expected at a demonstration on 27 August near Monas and the DPR. Update: that demonstration did escalate overnight into 28 August — protesters breached part of the DPR's perimeter fence, police fired tear gas, several tollgate entrances were temporarily closed, and a 59-year-old bystander (a mirror vendor uninvolved in the protest) was killed and a student injured in a separate mob attack nearby in Pejompongan, Central Jakarta. A distinct, larger labor rally (50,000 workers, tied to the standalone Labor Law bill) remains postponed to early September 2026.
Read morePP 30/2026 raises Indonesia's trademark registration and renewal fees 55%
Promulgated 2 July 2026 and effective 1 August 2026, PP 30/2026 resets the non-tax state revenue (PNBP) fee schedule at Indonesia's Ministry of Law, replacing PP 45/2024. For general (non-UMK) applicants, trademark registration rises from Rp 1.8 million to Rp 2.8 million per class — DJKI's first adjustment to this fee since 2016 — while patent fees and UMK/small-business trademark rates are unchanged.
Read moreBank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo resigns; Destry Damayanti takes over as acting governor
Perry Warjiyo resigned as Governor of Bank Indonesia for personal reasons. The State Secretary announced the resignation on the morning of 27 July 2026; Senior Deputy Governor Destry Damayanti becomes acting governor.
Read morePMK 49/2026 launches VAT collection on foreign digital purchases via SPP-TDLN
Signed 14 July 2026 and effective 20 July 2026, PMK 49/2026 operationalizes SPP-TDLN — a system where banks and payment providers collect VAT at the point of payment on intangible digital goods and services bought from abroad, such as foreign SaaS subscriptions and digital tools.
Read moreSE-9/PJ/2026 sets the procedure for DJP requests for bank and financial data
Issued 16 July 2026 to implement PMK 108/2025, SE-9/PJ/2026 is DJP's internal guideline for requesting account information, balances and transaction details from banks and other financial institutions for tax purposes. DJP has publicly clarified it applies to all taxpayers, not only high-net-worth individuals.
Read moreSE-8/PJ/2026 sets new timeframes for taxpayer compliance reviews
Issued 15 July 2026, this Director General circular consolidates taxpayer compliance supervision into a single risk-based framework aligned with Coretax, replacing four earlier circulars and setting explicit working-day limits for each type of review.
Read moreDJP moves all tax administration into Coretax from July 2026
The Directorate General of Taxes announced that Coretax becomes the core system for the entire tax administration process — supervision, enforcement, collection, and objections and appeals are moving into the single system in stages.
Read morePMK 44/2026 resets the rules on who may act as your tax representative
Promulgated and effective 6 July 2026, PMK 44/2026 replaces PMK 229/PMK.03/2014 and rewrites the requirements for acting as a tax representative (kuasa) in Indonesia — including how competency must be evidenced and a cooling-off period for former Ministry of Finance staff.
Read moreFour marketplaces designated to withhold PPh Article 22 on online sellers
On 1 July 2026 the Directorate General of Taxes designated Tokopedia, Shopee, Lazada and Blibli as collectors of PPh Article 22 on income earned by domestic merchants through their platforms, implementing PMK 37/2025. Collection begins 1 August 2026.
Read moreThis page summarises publicly available information for orientation. It is not tax, legal, or accounting advice, and regulations change. Verify against the linked primary sources and contact us before acting on anything here.