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December 30, 2024 | 11:04 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government plans to impose a 12 percent increase in Value Added Tax or VAT on various sectors, including education, especially international standard education services. This policy is planned to come into effect in January 2025. However, the plan has drawn criticism, one of which is from Professor of the Faculty of Economics and Business of Universitas Gadjah Mada (FEB UGM), Prof. Agus Sartono. According to Agus, imposing taxes on the education sector is inappropriate and should be canceled.
Agus Sartono said that the presence of foreign students at Legal Entity Universities or PTNBH also has a strategic role in the long term. In addition to encouraging the export of education services, it also has the potential to produce Indonesianists who play an important role in building bilateral relations between countries.
"Therefore, the plan to impose 12 percent VAT on international standard education is very inappropriate and should be canceled," said Agus, who once served as Deputy for Education and Religion, Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare (2010-2014) and Deputy for Education and Religion, Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture (2014-2021).
Agus believes that education is a long-term investment that should not be taxed. If the imposition of such tax is forced, it has the potential to worsen access to higher education, so that Indonesia lags further behind other ASEAN countries. He emphasized that if the government can reduce budget leakage and corruption, the funds are sufficient to finance investment in the human resources sector. Ignoring the education sector, according to him, will only make Indonesia even worse off in the future.
"Education is a long-term investment and should not be taxed. If only leakage and corruption can be suppressed, then it is more than sufficient to finance investment in human resources. If we ignore the education sector, it is only a matter of time before we will be even worse off," he said, quoted from the UGM website.
In addition, Agus highlighted that this VAT policy is not in line with the government's efforts to promote international standard education. On the other hand, PTNBH has long developed the International Undergraduate Program (IUP).
This program not only provides financial contributions to PTN H, but also attracts foreign students through student exchange programs. Another advantage of IUP is that it allows cross-subsidies to help students from underprivileged families, so that they can access quality higher education.
Agus also emphasized the importance of the presence of foreign students at PTN BH. Their presence not only encourages the export of educational services but also creates long-term potential. These foreign students can become Indonesianists, individuals who understand and support Indonesia in the international arena, and contribute to bilateral relations between countries.
As Deputy for Education and Religion at the Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare (2010–2014) and the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture (2014–2021), Agus stated that the imposition of taxes on the education sector came at an inappropriate time. Indonesia still faces major challenges related to access to education, especially higher education. Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) projects that in 2025, the population aged 19–23 years will reach 27.39 million people.
Meanwhile, the target gross participation rate (APK) for higher education is 35 percent, which means the number of students will reach 9.58 million. This indicates that the government must increase educational capacity for an additional 1.27 million students. In this situation, Agus questions the logic behind the 12 percent VAT policy. According to him, this step actually adds to the burden when the government should be focusing on increasing access to education. In addition to access, Agus also highlighted the challenges related to the relevance of education to industry needs. He questioned whether this policy would worsen the employment problem, considering that many college graduates have not been absorbed by the workforce. In his view, this tax imposition policy is not only counterproductive but also risks hampering efforts to improve the quality and access to education in Indonesia.
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