The usaha dagang; A commercial venture within Indonesian state law

Abstract

According to Kollewijn (1955:235), the reason for not explicitly declaring this type of commercial venture applicable for Indonesians was that, under the submission rules, this would have done away with other types of commercial venture, comparable to the limited liability company, that existed exclusively for Indonesians, for instance the Inlandse Maatschappij op Aandelen (S. 1939-596). According to appendix one of Presidential Decree no. 29, government contracts may only be awarded to commercial ventures possessing a notarial deed of their establishment, a trading licence, sufficient working capital, and so on (Presidential Decree 29/1984, Appendix 1,1.3, section a). [...]section II, paragraph 1, specifies that a licence should be issued subject to the submission of 'A copy of the letter/notarial deed of incorporation of the company and confirmation by the Department of Justice or an authorized agency thereof in the case of a corporate body'. According to notaries in Semarang whom I interviewed, the local tax office in that town actually advises entrepreneurs who are just setting up to adopt the usaha dagang form because of the fiscal advantages this offers, in combination with the low starting capital needed.30 However that may be, the above findings indicate that there are usaha dagang registered with the Department of Trade.