PANews reported on November 17th that Febrio Kacaribu, Director General of Fiscal Strategy at the Indonesian Ministry of Finance, stated on Monday that Indonesia is finalizing a plan to impose an export tax of 7.5% to 15% on gold products, which is expected to be implemented sometime next year. Speaking at a parliamentary hearing, he said the tax policy is designed to encourage domestic processing by imposing higher tax rates on upstream products and lower rates on processed products. He cited the example of gold ore, where the tax rate would be higher, while that on minted gold bars would be lower. He added that international gold prices would also be a factor in determining the export tax. As for the government's plan to tax coal exports, that is still under discussion.