Gold bars and coins are seen in this arranged photograph at Gold Investments Ltd. on Tuesday, June 14, 2011. - Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
JAKARTA, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Indonesia will charge taxes on exports of gold of between 7.5% and 15% in a plan that will be implemented sometime next year, a senior finance ministry official said on Monday.
The tax policy, currently being finalised, is being designed so that lower rates are applied to processed goods to help encourage domestic processing, Febrio Kacaribu, the ministry's director general of fiscal strategy, told a parliamentary hearing.
For example, a higher rate for gold dore - bars or ingots with impurities - and a lower rate for minted bars would be charged, he said.
Global gold prices will also be a factor in determining the taxes, he said, noting that higher rates are likely to be applied when prices are at or above $3,200 per troy ounce to capture miners' windfall profits.
Spot gold has been trading above $4,000 per ounce since early November. It is up more than 50% so far this year.
The bull run has helped Indonesia's gold exports hit $1.64 billion for the first nine months of 2025, much higher than the $1.1 billion shipments for all of last year. Singapore, Switzerland and Hong Kong are the top buyers.
Resource-rich Indonesia has the world's fourth-largest unmined gold reserves, including in the Grasberg mine in the country's east, operated by a local unit of Freeport-McMoRan.
However, many domestic investors have found it difficult to find gold bars to buy amid the boom in gold investment, Febrio said.
"We want production in Indonesia, as well as liquidity in and ample circulation of gold in Indonesia. And we want as much value added as possible so that gold can be enjoyed by Indonesians," Febrio said.
The government's plan to impose a tax on coal exports is still under discussion, he said. (Reporting by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by John Mair and Edwina Gibbs)
