Currently there are only 600 automotive component producers in the country as against 2,000 companies in Thailand.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Association of Motor Vehicle Industries (Gaikindo) has asked President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to provide special incentives for automotive industry in the form of tax holiday.

"We have to strengthen industrial structure with incentives tax holiday to boost development of component industry in the country," Co-Chairman I of Gaikindo Jongkie D. Sugiarto said after meeting the president here on Tuesday.

Incentives are needed for automotive industry that automotive component industry would flourish in the country, he added.

Currently there are only 600 automotive component producers in the country as against 2,000 companies in Thailand, he said.

He said in talks with the president, Gaikindo also stressed the importance of Indonesia improving the capacity of test laboratory for its automotive industry before the implementation of the Asean Economic Community (AEC).

"Improvement of the capacity of test laboratory is important that we do not have to go abroad for the testing of vehicles saving the cost and time," he said.

President Jokowi , he said, is serious in considering the proposal to strengthen the countrys automotive industry.

Currently the countrys production capacity for cars is around 1.9 million units per year and production in the first 8 months of the year reached 740,000 units.

Last year exports totaled 200,000 units and the number is expected to be the same this year.

"The automotive industry from the upstream to the downstream sectors provides 1.3 million jobs ," he said.

Last year car sales totaled 1.2 million units , but this year sales are expected to shrink 19 percent to 950,000 units.

The automotive sector contributed Rp70 trillion to the income of the central government last year including in value added tax and luxury sales tax.

The contribution of the automotive sector to the income of the regional administration reached around Rp31 trillion .

"We also proposed to the president restructuring of luxury sales tax especially for small sedans and sport utility vehciles in order to increase the market in the country," he said.

He said the president could review the tax tariff that small sedans would be more competitive in price on the domestic market.

Gaikindo also complained about anti dumping import duty on basic materials though some of which are not yet produced in Indonesia.

"Exports could also be boosted by scrapping import duty on components for cars to be exported to strengthen competitiveness," he added.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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