Government Drafts Tax Incentive Scheme for Gold ETFs

JAKARTA, DDTCNews - The Directorate General of Taxes (DGT) has revealed that the government is drawing up income tax and VAT incentives for the investment vehicle in the form of the trade of gold commodities without any physical supply or gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Director General of Taxes, Bimo Wijayanto, said that plans to grant such incentives are still being coordinated with the Directorate General of Economic and Fiscal Strategy (Direktorat Jenderal Strategi Ekonomi dan Fiskal/DJSEF in Indonesian) at the Ministry of Finance (MoF). Gold ETFs would subsequently be eligible for tax incentives if they are treated on an equal footing with securities.

"Technically, [gold ETFs] should be able to be treated on a par with securities and have their income tax and VAT exempt. However, we must first coordinate with the Director General of SEF and report to the Minister of Finance," he claimed on Monday (10/8/2026).

Bimo said the mechanism for granting tax incentives for gold ETFs has been finalised by the DGT. However, the final decision and the launch date for those facilities are still awaiting the Minister of Finance's approval.

"The technical discussions at the DGT are final, but we still need to coordinate with the Director General of SEF and the Minister of Finance," he affirmed.

Should gold ETFs be treated on a par with securities, the instrument would not be subject to VAT. For information, securities do not constitute taxable goods and are therefore not subject to VAT, as stipulated under Article 4A of the VAT Law.

Previously, the Chairperson of the Financial Services Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan/OJK in Indonesian), Friderica Widyasari Dewi, proposed that the government provide fiscal incentives for new investment products in the financial services sector, including non-delivery gold ETFs.

"We are requesting several incentives for new products in the financial services sector, such as gold ETFs and others. We also provided an update on bullion developments as well as several new initiatives, such as the planned exchange demutualisation, for which the OJK regulation will, God willing, be completed in September," she said in July 2026.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, subsequently said the government would review the proposal. He noted that the proposed incentives are connected to strengthening the OJK's role as both regulator and supervisor of the financial sector, as provided under Law 4/2023 as amended by Law 4/2026 concerning the Development and Strengthening of the Financial Sector (Pengembangan dan Penguatan Sektor Keuangan/P2SK in Indonesian).

"With respect to the new P2SK regulation, concerning the OJK's subsequent mandate, including for the next stage, namely non-delivery gold ETF trading, fiscal incentives may be required. We are studying this as well," he said.

Airlangga explained that investing in gold through non-delivery ETFs does not involve the physical delivery of gold. The government is therefore considering the option of granting tax incentives to boost investor interest whilst encouraging the development of such investment products.

"Well, for non-delivery gold ETF trading, the physical goods do not exist. As such, one of the plans is to ease [the incentives] from a taxation standpoint," said Airlangga.