The Directorate General of Taxes (DGT) plans to impose a stamp duty of Rp10,000 on electronic documents in the form of Terms and Conditions (T&C) for transactions on digital platforms, including e-commerce, with a value of over Rp5 million.

The imposition of stamp duty on T&C on e-commerce is stipulated in Article 3 paragraph (2) letter G of the Stamp Duty Law. The article regulates that documents stating the amount of money with a nominal value of over Rp5 million, both mentioning the receipt of money and containing acknowledgment that the debt has been paid, are subject to stamp duty.

Indonesian E-commerce Association (idEA) Chairman Bima Laga explained that T&C is one part of services that is attached to all platforms. Its function is to explain the rights and responsibilities of all parties who access digital services, as reported by Katadata.

According to him, the government's plan to impose a stamp duty will actually create obstacles to the ongoing digitisation process. This is because the stamp duty will burden users, both buyers and sellers. 

"Even though they haven't made any transaction. Moreover, although micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) haven't made sales, they have to pay stamp duty," Bima explained.

He also stated that this policy is not in line with the government's programme of 30 million MSMEs going online by 2024.

Therefore, the idEA recommends that the government provide a special exception that T&Cs are not subject to stamp duty. That is because it will create considerable challenges to digitisation.

On the other hand, Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency of the Ministry of Finance Febrio Kacaribu believes that the imposition of a stamp duty is reasonable because there is a minimum transaction value, which is more than Rp5 million. He said this will not disrupt the digital economy ecosystem.

To this date, the Directorate General of Taxes and idEA are still discussing the mechanism for the stamp duty on T&C.