Even as the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) is considering issuing a fatwa against the popular video game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) for its potential bad influence on the country’s morals, other Indonesian authorities are warning that the first person shooter and games like it could be a bad influence on the nation’s economy.
According to Bank Indonesia (BI), online gaming apps or platforms may place a burden on Indonesia’s economy by widening the country’s balance of payment (NPI) deficit.
NPI is a statistic that records economic transactions between Indonesian citizens and non-citizens over a certain period. The transactions are recorded and published by Bank Indonesia every three months.
BI says games like PUBG may contribute to growing the NPI deficit due to capital outflow from the country in the form of in-game microtransactions.
“When we play those games, can we see [the effects] on our NPI? Hopefully so. While we can’t see the effects at the moment, money is definitely coming out from Indonesia. If each of the two million gamers spend half a dollar each, [then a big amount of] money is coming out of the country,” BI Senior Deputy Governor Mirza Adityaswara said Tuesday, as quoted by Kumparan.
The Center of Reform on Economics (Core) Indonesia’s director of research, Piter Abdullah, said paid games are growing at a fast rate in Indonesia, along with increasing internet penetration.
“The [internet] penetration and the growth of online gaming are very high. If these are ignored, they will disturb the country’s payment balance,” Piter told Kumparan.
He added that the government should have paid more attention to the growing popularity of PUBG and other online games/platforms, because they contain what are considered as imported digital items. Up until now, the only taxable digital goods are those bought online via e-commerce websites.
BI recorded a US$7.1 billion NPI deficit in 2018, down from the US$11.6 billion recorded in 2017. The NPI drop was in line with the country’s record US$8.57 billion trade deficit last year.
So if BI gets their wish, every new rifle you buy in PUBG may soon be taxable.
