DEREGULATION OF INDONESIA'S INTERREGIONAL AGRICULTURAL TRADE

In January 1998 a significant policy reform deregulated agriculture in Indonesia. It sought to eliminate distorting local monopolies, monopsonies, trade restrictions, interisland maximum shipment quotas and other barriers that effectively lowered farmgate prices. Many of these had been constructed to benefit the Soeharto family and their business cronies. The reform also sought to lower local taxes and levies targeted at agriculture. This paper demonstrates that deregulation eliminated many of the distorting taxes and levies, and dismantled many (but not all) local monopolies, monopsonies and quotas. Farmers typically now receive a higher percentage of the destination market price. Many also receive significantly higher real prices for their products, although this differs dramatically across commodities. Local governments complained about local revenues lost through the reforms. Detailed budget analyses reveal that deregulation did not substantially harm local government budgets; instead, other factors caused a decline in the local-source revenue contribution to local budgets.