RGA Indonesia — Licensing and Taxation in the Minerals Sector
Resource Governance Assessment
Indonesia has strengthened the legal foundations of mineral licensing and taxation, but governance remains uneven once mining operations begin. This is the first country assessment published under NRGI's new Resource Governance Assessment (RGA) framework — measuring not just what the law provides for, but what happens in practice.
Overall licensing and taxation score
Licensing 41/100·Taxation 57/100
Two decades of reform have built a strong foundation. Digital platforms including Minerba One Map Indonesia, Minerba One Data Indonesia and the Indonesia EITI Extractive Data Portal have significantly improved public access to licensing and concession data.
Transparency drops sharply once licenses are awarded. Mining contracts are not publicly disclosed, beneficial ownership data is incomplete and confidentiality provisions still block company- and project-level tax and royalty disclosure.
The next phase is implementation, not new legislation. Indonesia has a strong legal and regulatory foundation. The priority now is to apply existing rules consistently and expand the information available to the public.
Licensing — 41/100
Indonesia has made major gains in licensing administration, particularly before licenses are awarded. Digitalization and centralized systems have improved consistency and access to information. But transparency weakens once mining begins, particularly around contracts and beneficial ownership.
Detailed score breakdown (7 indicators)
Indonesia has built strong systems for allocating licenses, but public accountability has not developed at the same pace once mining operations begin.
Taxation — 57/100
Indonesia has a comprehensive framework for mining taxation and royalties, but public visibility over how revenues are paid, enforced and transferred is much weaker. Company- and project-level payments remain largely confidential and transparency around some SOE financial flows is particularly limited.
Detailed score breakdown (10 indicators)
Indonesia scores 100 for its taxation rules, but much of the information needed for independent scrutiny of revenue collection and SOE financial relationships remains unavailable.
Recommendations
Indonesia has made significant progress in strengthening governance of the mineral sector through regulatory reform, digitalization and institutional modernization. Future reforms should build on these achievements by improving implementation and expanding public access to information across the mining value chain.
Expand disclosure beyond license allocation to contracts, production data, environmental monitoring, inspections, sanctions, permit amendments, suspensions and license revocations. Build on existing platforms such as MOMI, MODI and the Indonesia EITI Extractive Data Portal to provide a more complete picture of mining activities from license allocation through mine closure.
Strengthen beneficial ownership implementation through better verification, higher-quality data, stronger enforcement and free public access to information. Increase disclosure of company- and project-level tax and royalty payments in line with domestic legal reforms and international transparency standards.
Strengthen interoperability among MOMI, MODI, SIMBARA, beneficial ownership registries, revenue reporting systems and SOE disclosures so stakeholders can trace the chain of accountability from license allocation and ownership through production, taxation and revenue distribution.
Standardize reporting of dividends, capital injections, guarantees, subsidies and quasi-fiscal expenditures to improve public understanding of how state resources are allocated and managed.
About this assessment
This is the first assessment published under NRGI's Resource Governance Assessment (RGA) framework, produced in partnership with the Research Center for Politics and Government at Universitas Gadjah Mada (PolGov UGM). It covers licensing and taxation in Indonesia's mineral sector; assessments of revenue management, socio-environmental impacts and the energy transition will follow.
Data collection ran from July 2025 to February 2026, drawing on laws, regulations and policies issued through December 2025, with external review from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (EITI Indonesia Secretariat) and Publish What You Pay Indonesia (PWYP-Indonesia Secretariat).
Read the full RGA FAQ for more on methodology and how findings can be used.
What the findings mean in practice
Indonesia’s first RGA reveals significant transparency gaps after licenses are awarded. Read our analysis of what this means in practice.
