Uplift in Taxation of Petroleum and Natural Gas Sector in Indonesia

Abstract

Oil and gas industry is an industry that is risky, expensive and complicated. Oil and gas industry which has the characteristics of high cost and high risk technology should be managed by experts in the field of oil and gas. In accordance with Law No. 44 Year 1960 regarding oil and gas mining and Law No. 8 year 1971 regarding Pertamina, exploitation of oil and gas can be cooperated with the contractor in the form of a Production Sharing Contract. The main problem in terms of the production sharing contracts viewed from national interest is how to optimize resource utilization contribution of oil and gas for the State's economy, employment opportunities, creating opportunities for national private companies to participate and ensuring the supply of fuel and gas for domestic needs. Meanwhile, the interest of foreign investors and national private entrepreneurs are to gain the profit as much as possible. With regard to the management of oil and gas in the Production Sharing Contract, there is problem of setting the tax on oil and gas sector particularly uplift policy relating to the taxation of income in the state revenue sources. This issue is related to the return of controversy of operational costs recognized by the contractor (cost recovery claim). Uplift tax culminated by this controversy is only levied at state-owned enterprises as partners in the oil and gas with contracting scheme of Joint Operation Body (JOB), especially the old fields with advanced technology (Enhanced Oil Recovery/EOR). The controversy that developed in line with the declining number of production and increased production costs are recognized by the contractor with respect to the reasonableness of operational expenses charged by contractors, both in terms of quantity and cost classification.