zanderthunder Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia has issued regulations to allow authorities to block smartphones purchased on the black market, in a bid to encourage investors to produce mobile phones in the country, a minister said on Friday. FILE PHOTO: Airlangga Hartarto, Indonesia's Industry Minister, speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office in Jakarta, Indonesia July 20, 2018. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/File Photo Indonesia is a large market for mobile phone producers, with 60 millions phones sold every year. “These (regulations) are aimed at creating a level playing field,” Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto told reporters. “With this policy, investors will continue to enter Indonesia because their industries are protected from the risks of the black market.” Indonesia is estimated to lose 2 trillion rupiah ($141 million) in potential value-added tax every year from illegally imported mobile phones. The government does not charge import duties on mobile phones. Under the new rules, which are yet to be made public, phone users will be encouraged to check on a designated website whether their phones were imported lawfully by inputting their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number. Users should register their IMEI within six months from Friday if they fear it may have been illegally imported, officials said. Indonesians traveling abroad can only bring back two mobile phones and will have to pay appropriate value added taxes. The tax payment receipt would be used to register the IMEI of their foreign-purchased phones. A person will not be able to use a phone with an unregistered IMEI after the six-month period, said Heru Pambudi, the finance ministry’s customs director general. The rules will only be applied to phones imported after the rules were signed on Friday. Brokerage Trimegah Securitas, in a note on Friday, said the rules should be positive for smartphone retailers such as PT Erajaya Swasembada, especially coming just before the latest model of iPhones arrive in Indonesia. In addition, manufacturer PT Sat Nusaperada could benefit if more mobile phones are assembled locally. Shares of Erajaya rose 12% by 0751 GMT on Friday with trade volume four times the daily average in the past 30 trading days. Harjanto, the Industry Ministry’s director general, said there were 34 mobile phone assembly plants in Indonesia that would benefit from the new policy, including one operated by Taiwan’s Pegatron. Source: Indonesia issues rules to block illegally imported mobile phones (via Reuters) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arachnoid Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 Sounds more like a Government appling controllable access controls to its citizens connection to external media sources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zanderthunder Posted October 19, 2019 Author Share Posted October 19, 2019 5 hours ago, Arachnoid said: Sounds more like a Government appling controllable access controls to its citizens connection to external media sources. Not really. The Indonesian government is actually controlling the importation of mobile devices into the country by "whitelisting" IMEI's to be able connected to Indonesian's cellular network. For the device to be included on whitelist, the device must be locally manufactured, or can be imported with taxes properly paid and have required legal documents (such as purchasing receipt, import document, etc.) to be presented by the importer (can be person or company). If one reads the article thoroughly, the main purpose of the law is to address issue of imports of black market mobile phones (which causes loss of revenues, and also evading taxes as well). This is aligned with the custom rules that are enforced in Indonesia (search online for details of Indonesia Custom Law). The new law: 1. Requires those who use local (Indonesian) mobile number on their phones must have the IMEI of the phone being used to be registered; the registration of IMEI might require tax receipt number (if the phone is bought from overseas). 2. Indonesian citizens (and also foreigners as well) are allowed to bring maximum 2 phones; though that it might still subject to taxes (tax exemption for personal items below US$500 per passenger). However, the registration of IMEI also will be useful if there's a case of phone theft, which it doesn't highlighted on the news. Those who are not registered, will not able to connect to the country's cellular network (but still can use WiFi to connect to the internet/make WiFi calls). Though that this still unknown yet if it affects tourists, because mostly they purchase tourist SIM card once arrived at Indonesia, instead of using roaming services from their originating country's cellular network (data/call roaming is expensive). If you're still confused, and interested to know more (and also if you understand Indonesian language as well), head up to these sources: 1. https://coconuts.co/jakarta/news/government-finally-passes-imei-regulation-to-block-illegal-cellphones-in-indonesia-set-to-take-effect-in-april-2020/ 2. https://inet.detik.com/telecommunication/d-4623363/skenario-terbaru-aturan-imei-untuk-ponsel-turis 3. https://inet.detik.com/indeksfokus/4798/aturan-validasi-imei 4. https://inet.detik.com/law-and-policy/d-4750304/hari-ini-kemenperin-tandatangani-aturan-blokir-ponsel-bm 5. https://inet.detik.com/law-and-policy/d-4750868/aturan-imei-ditandatangani-ini-efek-ke-pengguna-dan-pedagang 6. https://inet.detik.com/consumer/d-4686583/asus-indonesia-mengaku-sangat-dirugikan-ponsel-bm 7. https://inet.detik.com/telecommunication/d-4751215/aturan-imei-bikin-ponsel-curian-jadi-batu-bata 8. https://inet.detik.com/law-and-policy/d-4751273/pelaku-industri-ponsel-semringah-aturan-imei-ditandatangani 9. https://inet.detik.com/law-and-policy/d-4751580/bawa-iphone-dari-luar-bebas-biaya-masuk-tapi 10. https://inet.detik.com/law-and-policy/d-4675875/samsung-lebih-suka-konsumen-indonesia-beli-ponsel-resmi 11. https://inet.detik.com/law-and-policy/d-4673882/tentang-aturan-imei-ombudsman-pemerintah-jangan-gegabah 12. https://www.expatindo.org/community/threads/illegal-imei-phone-cannot-be-used.4764/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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