Day: July 25, 2022

With the Directorate General of Taxes (DJP) launching the integration of personal identification numbers with taxpayer numbers, the old taxpayer numbers provided by DJP will remain valid until December 31, 2023, an official has said.

“(The deadline will be in 2023-end) because (at present), not all administrative services can accommodate the new format of the taxpayer numbers,” DJP’s director of assistance, services, and public relations, Neilmaldrin Noor, told ANTARA here on Monday.

Currently, the use of the new format taxpayer numbers is restricted to limited taxation administration services, such as logging on to personal tax accounts on the pajak.go.id website, he explained.

The full implementation of the new format taxpayer numbers is expected from January 1, 2024, when the core tax system becomes operational, he said.

“The use of the new format taxpayer number will be implemented effectively when the core tax system is operational for the entire DJP services or on other administrative functions requiring the use of taxpayer numbers,” Noor remarked.

Earlier, director general of taxes, Suryo Utomo, had said that thanks to data integration, at least 19 million personal identity numbers would now be used as taxpayer numbers for filing taxes.

The directorate general is committed to integrating more ID numbers with taxpayer numbers, but the process will take time as it has to be divided into several stages considering the hundreds of millions of personal identity numbers that the DJP needs to process for the purpose, he added.

According to the Finance Ministry’s Regulation No. 112/PMK.03/2022, there will be three new taxpayer number formats for different taxpayers. In the first format, individual taxpayers who are Indonesian residents will use their personal identification numbers as their taxpayer numbers.

The second format will be a 16-digit taxpayer number for non-resident individuals, government institutions, and entity taxpayers, while the third format will be a business domicile identity number for taxpayers registered as branch taxpayers.

Source: Antara News

Women’s Empowerment and Child’s Protection (PPPA) Minister Bintang Puspayoga said the Crime of Sexual Violence Law, issued May 9, 2022, reflected the state’s presence to protect and fulfill victims’ rights to treatment, protection, and recovery.

“This law is important for Indonesian women and children, who are most vulnerable to being victims of sexual violence. The law is a lex specialist (special) law that can provide comprehensive protection for victims of sexual violence from upstream to downstream,” Puspayoga noted in a statement received here Monday.

The minister affirmed that the law provided protection to children and women by preventing all forms of sexual violence; handling, protecting, and recovering victims; implementing law enforcement and rehabilitating perpetrators; creating an environment without sexual violence; and ensuring that sexual violence does not recur in future.

The ratification of the law aligns with one of the issues that President Joko Widodo had called on the PPPA Ministry to prioritize, such as reducing the number of cases of violence against women and children.

“The victims and the state suffer from the enormous impacts of sexual violence crimes that include physical, mental, health, economic, social, and political suffering. Therefore, comprehensive regulations governing sexual violence are urgently needed,” she emphasized.

Meanwhile, Deputy for the Protection of Women’s Rights at the PPPA Ministry Ratna Susianawati said that apart from recovering, handling, and settling sexual violence cases, the law also regulated prevention through community participation.

“We must encourage public participation, community participation, especially family participation, to ensure that prevention can be conducted on a massive scale. Therefore, women’s organizations, mass organizations, community networks, and the government must raise awareness and make efforts to disseminate information to educate the public regarding this law,” she added.

Source: Antara News

The Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Ministry continues to encourage the acceleration of the electric vehicle ecosystem by increasing the number of general electric vehicle charging stations and general electric vehicle battery swap stations nationwide.

The electric vehicle program became one of the governments’ efforts in encouraging domestic energy independence by reducing fuel oil import dependency, the ministry’s official, Dwinugroho, noted through a statement on Monday.

“In managing the energy sector, the government has the obligation to ensure national energy security,” he explained.

“The effort is undertaken by encouraging domestic energy independence through reduction of fuel oil dependency, such as by utilizing electric vehicles for road transportation,” he remarked.

The ministry recorded the presence of 332 charging stations at 279 public locations and 269 battery swap stations across Indonesia.

The charging facilities are also available at tourism destinations. During the G20 Presidency, the government managed to build 24 charging stations at 17 locations in Bali.

In addition, charging stations were built at the Borobudur Temple Complex in Central Java and Labuan Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara.

The ministry expects that with the rising number of charging stations coupled with developing charging technology, the process to charge the battery of electric vehicles will only take between 30 and 90 minutes, Dwinugroho stated.

As a result, this will make the use of electric cars more attractive for vehicle owners, he added.

Currently, the ministry is revising ESDM Ministerial Regulation No. 13 of 2020 in a bid to increase the number of charging stations and battery swap stations.

This is done through incentives, such as a more flexible licensing process and technical requirements.

In addition, the ministry actively conducts a program to convert fuel oil-run motorcycles to electric ones.

In 2022, the ministry aims to convert one thousand motorcycle units from ministries and state-owned institutions to electric motorcycles.

Source: Antara News

Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan has called for the digitalization of traditional markets to facilitate online transactions between merchants and customers, allowing for products to be sold at an affordable price.

At an event entitled “Implementation of Digitalization of Payments and Distribution” at Cicalengka Baru Market, Bandung District, West Java Province, on Monday, he said that through the digitalization attempt, customers could shop without leaving their homes.

The attempt is important to promote commodities in a wider market, he explained.

For instance, it would allow cassava or sweet potatoes produced by farmers in West Java province to be purchased by consumers outside the province, or even outside Java Island, he said.

The implementation of trade digitalization can also make the supply chain more efficient, thereby making the prices of products more competitive, he added.

“We keep harvesting crops, however, sometimes we cannot find a market to sell the products. It (the digitalization attempt) will facilitate and shorten the distribution chain,” he explained.

Thus, he asked all stakeholders to assist traders and farmers to get used to digital technology.

His ministry is also continuing to encourage the development of digitalization to allow micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to market their products in domestic and foreign markets.

To enable merchants at Cicalengka Baru Market to digitalize their trade, the Trade Ministry is collaborating with a private e-commerce company, PT Tokopedia.

Speaking at the same event, co-founder and vice chairman of Tokopedia, Leontinus Alpha Edison, said that his company is committed to providing spaces to promote products sold by traditional market merchants to increase their online sales.

“The (trade) digitalization through Tokopedia is also expected to help the community to fulfill their demands for basic necessities (through) online (applications). Thus, people (can) have alternative (places) for shopping for basic necessities,” he added.

The “Implementation of Digitalization of Payments and Distribution” event was also attended by acting director general of domestic trade at the ministry, Syailendra; director general of customer protection and trade order at the ministry, Veri Anggrijojo; as well as Deputy Governor of West Java, Uu Ruzhanul Ulum.

Source: Antara News

The Kudus District authority in Central Java has sought to register Muria coffee as the district’s original special plant variety with the Agriculture Ministry’s Plant Variety Protection and Agricultural Permit Centre.

“Muria coffee has been promoted in such a way that (the coffee) must be registered as Kudus’ special variety. We must not be overtaken by other districts,” Kudus District Head Hartopo stated here Monday.

The district head admitted that in the past, Kudus District was overtaken by other districts in claiming the local plant varieties, such as in the case of parijoto (medinilla magnifica) and the pomelo orange (citrus maxima).

Hartopo spoke of having instructed regional authorities to handle the plant variety registration with the central authority.

Meanwhile, Kudus District Agriculture and Food Office’s Sub-coordinator for Food Plants Arin Nikmah said that various requirements must be fulfilled before the district authority can register Muria coffee as Kudus’ original special plant variety.

“We must obtain on-site observation data and find Muria coffee’s mother plant that must be at least 20 years old,” she stated.

Nikmah highlighted that as most coffee plants cultivated by local farmers originated from outside Kudus, the authority must exert more efforts to seek the mother plant that grows in Kudus.

Once the mother plant is found, observations of the plant’s flowers and fruits, performed at least twice a year, are deemed necessary, according to the sub-coordinator.

“From the observation result, we will seek the uniqueness of Muria coffee with other coffee varieties, and when (we detect) a different stalk and leaf physiology, we can continue the process,” Nikmah explained.

The registration with the ministry as a special local variety aims to protect the coffee’s germplasm and the local varieties of Kudus District, she noted, adding that the nursery process can commence after the Agriculture Ministry issues a certificate.

Source: Antara News

The Bali Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) urged Bali residents to remain calm and ignore rumors of aftershocks following an earthquake on Monday.

“As of Monday, July 25, 2022, at 5:26 p.m. local time, the BMKG monitoring results showed that there was no aftershock activity,” Head of Bali BMKG, Denpasar Region III, Cahyo Nugroho, informed in Denpasar, Bali, on Monday.

An earthquake of 3.7 magnitude shook several parts of Bali at 4:09 p.m. local time on Monday. Its center was located 8.76 degrees south latitude and 115.28 degrees east longitude, seven km northeast of South Kuta, Bali, at a depth of 11 km.

Tsunami modeling on the tectonic earthquake’s sources showed that the quake would not potentially cause a tsunami, Nugroho informed.

By observing the location of the epicenter and the depth of the hypocenter, the earthquake was categorized as shallow and it was determined to have occurred due to horizontal fault activity on the seabed, he explained.

However, he advised the public to avoid cracked or damaged buildings due to the impact of the tectonic earthquake.

“Before you return home, check and make sure your houses are sufficiently resistant against earthquake, or there is no damage from earthquake tremors that endanger the stability of the building,” Nugroho said.

Furthermore, he advised the public to share information related to the earthquake only from BMKG’s official communication channels.

Meanwhile, based on community reports, shocks from the earthquake were felt in Denpasar, Kuta, Jimbaran, and Gianyar, and reached an intensity scale of up to Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) III. In Klungkung, the intensity was between MMI I – II.

As of 7 p.m. on Monday, no damages had been reported.

Source: Antara News