JAKARTA. Directorate General of Taxation has suspended the implementation of regulation that stipulates banking sector to report the data of credit card customers to tax authority.

However, despite the postponement, some of credit card holders have preferred to make transaction through debit card.

Initially, the regulation took into effect per 31 May 2016. In July 2016, the volume of transaction through credit card dropped from 25.74 million in June 2016 to 24.44 million.

Meanwhile, the number of transaction through credit card in July 2016 dropped from IDR 29.93 trillion in June 2016 and IDR 24.66 trillion in July 2015 to only IDR 21.26 trillion of transaction.

During the period of January-July 2016, the total volume of credit card transaction increased to 173.66 million compared to 161.25 million in the same period in 2015. However, the amount of transaction has dropped by IDR 570 billion to IDR 161.26 trillion.

According to Director of Bank Central Asia (BCA) Santoso Liem, customers from the segment of middle class tended to avoid transaction through credit card. However, customers from high class segment seemed to be not affected by the regulation.

BCA noted 1% of decrease in credit card transaction in July 2016. Santoso targets that BCA credit card transaction and number of BCA credit cards will increase by 8% and 5%, respectively in this year.

Head of Card Division at Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) Corina Leyla Karnalies said that credit card industry per July 2016 experienced negative growth by 0.45%.

“BNI still booked positive growth in credit card transaction. However, this tends to be flat in compared with the same period in 2015,” Corina said.

Director of Retail Banking at CIMB Niaga Lani Darmawan said that CIMB’s credit card transaction increased by above of 20% in July 2016 due to Iedul Fitri celebration. According to Lani, the plan to report data of credit card customers did not affect CIMB card holders. Lani added that CIMB targets the increase in credit card transaction by above of 20% by the end of 2016. (Translator: Muhammad Farid)

Editor: Sanny Cicilia