SURABAYA (ISL News) – PT Pelindo Terminal Petikemas recorded a contribution to the state of Rp1.73 trillion throughout 2025. This contribution reflects the company's strong role in supporting the national fiscal.
The contributions comprised Rp1.45 trillion in tax payments, Rp55.59 billion in Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP), and Rp224.5 billion in concession payments. Of the total taxes paid, the largest contribution came from Value Added Tax (VAT), amounting to Rp485.45 billion. Furthermore, there were significant contributions from Income Tax Article 25/29, amounting to Rp360.13 billion, and Income Tax Article 21, amounting to Rp267.35 billion.
Widyaswendra, Corporate Secretary of PT Pelindo Terminal Petikemas, stated that the company's contribution to the state demonstrates its compliance with government regulations and obligations. He stated that the Rp1.73 trillion contribution demonstrates the company's commitment and contribution to supporting the national economy.
"This support is a concrete manifestation of the company's commitment as part of the Pelindo Group to supporting national development through the State Budget (APBN)," he said, Tuesday (May 26, 2026).
He believes that with increasing logistics and trade activity, the port sector is projected to continue to be a crucial foundation for Indonesia's economic growth. Efficient container terminal services are also expected to reduce national logistics costs, accelerate goods distribution, strengthen export competitiveness, and sustainably increase state revenue.
This is reinforced by data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), which shows that the national transportation and warehousing sector grew 8.98 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the fourth quarter of 2025. This achievement also shows that the logistics sector is one of the driving forces of the national economy.
Professor of Management Science at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta (UMS), Anton Agus Setyawan, assessed that Indonesia's logistics sector has great potential to continue to grow along with increasing trade activities between islands and between countries.
"Indeed, the logistics business has been growing in Indonesia since the early 2000s. This coincided with the rise of industrial mechanisms that facilitate inter-island and international trade," Anton explained when contacted on Friday (May 22, 2026).
As an archipelagic nation, Indonesia requires a robust distribution system to ensure an efficient supply chain. Anton believes that infrastructure development in recent years has helped support the logistics sector, particularly through the construction of toll roads. However, port development and the maritime toll road concept are still in need of optimization.
Port optimization will directly impact the efficiency of goods distribution, particularly in Eastern Indonesia. This is considered crucial for reducing price disparities between regions.
"How can we improve the logistics supply chain in Papua so that price differences between some commodity products can be reduced and prices become lower?" he said.
Port Modernization
PT Pelindo Terminal Petikemas also continues to modernize and strengthen its container port capacity by adding and relocating loading and unloading equipment at several strategic terminals. This step is being taken to improve logistics efficiency and accelerate the distribution of goods.
Several key pieces of equipment have even arrived at the destination terminals, including four additional Quay Container Cranes (QCCs) at the Semarang Container Terminal (TPK) and one at the Panjang Container Terminal (IPCTPK). The Surabaya Container Terminal received 14 additional Rubber Tyred Gantries (RTGs) and four QCCs to bolster its loading and unloading capacity.
Facility strengthening was also carried out at regional terminals, such as sending one RTG unit to TPK Kendari, four RTG units to TPK Banjarmasin, and one RTG unit to TPK Nilam to support inter-regional logistics connectivity.
In addition, several pieces of equipment are currently in production, including two QCC units and four RTG units for the Belawan TPK, two QCC units for the Perawang TPK, and two RTG units for the Kijing Terminal. Optimization is also being carried out through equipment relocation between terminals, including the transfer of two QCC units from the Surabaya TPS to the Berlian TPK.
Raja Oloan Saut Gurning, a maritime expert from the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS), stated that the increase in the number of loading and unloading equipment is essentially a response to the increase in ship visits and the volume of containers the terminal must handle. The increase in container traffic is an indicator of growing maritime economic and trade activity.
"Fundamentally, the increase in the number of ships carrying containerized cargo indicates economic growth. The resulting impact is trade or economic interactions via sea," he said when contacted on Tuesday (May 26, 2026).
However, container terminal efficiency isn't solely determined by the number of equipment, but also by the readiness of supporting infrastructure, such as docks, stacking yards, container warehouses, and terminal entry and exit gates. One key indicator of terminal efficiency is the ability to reduce ship turnaround times to fit within available service slots.
In addition to relocating equipment from terminals with lower utilization rates, PT Pelindo Terminal Petikemas also retrofits or renews old equipment to extend its operational life and improve performance.
Capacity building at regional terminals is also considered strategic. At Kijing Terminal, for example, the surge in logistics activity throughout 2025 was reflected in a 15% increase in ship calls, reaching 741 ship calls.
"Kijing Terminal has seen a surge in ship traffic carrying a significant volume of non-containerized cargo, both dry bulk and liquid bulk, from the downstream palm oil and alumina industries," he said.
He said that so far, container operations at Kijing still rely heavily on Harbor Mobile Cranes (HMC) and Reach Stackers, so additional equipment is considered important to increase service productivity.
Meanwhile, the Banjarmasin TPK is said to be one of the main logistics arteries in Kalimantan, with the flow of domestic goods continuing to show growth.
"Domestic freight flows in this corridor demonstrate strong resilience, primarily driven by domestic consumption and the needs of the hinterland industry supporting mining," he said. As a result, the frequency of domestic container ship visits continues to increase and is starting to put pressure on the capacity of the storage yard.
Meanwhile, in Kendari, the need for increased terminal capacity has increased since operations were moved to Bungkutoko, or Kendari New Port. Since the move, terminal capacity has increased significantly, reaching around 116,000 TEUs.
Meanwhile, transportation observer and member of the Advisory Board of the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI), Tory Damantoro, assessed that PT Pelindo Terminal Petikemas' contribution to the country proves that the company has a strategic position as a "fiscal anchor" that supports national development.
"As a national commercial port operator, Pelindo has a true role as a macroeconomic enabler to achieve the target of reducing logistics costs to 8 percent of GDP," he said when contacted on Tuesday (May 26, 2026).
He also encouraged the company to streamline port services to create a multiplier effect for the national economy. When logistics costs decrease and goods flow more smoothly, national trade volume will increase and the country's tax base will be broadened sustainably.
According to him, PT Pelindo Terminal Petikemas is now faced with the challenge of building broader logistics efficiency through inter-island connectivity and integration of the national distribution system. As an archipelagic nation, Indonesia requires a maritime logistics system capable of maintaining a balanced flow of goods between regions to reduce logistics costs.
"Pelindo must take a bigger role, not just in terms of port operational efficiency, but also geographic allocative efficiency to ensure more balanced and affordable inter-island logistics connectivity," he said.
Tory believes container terminals play a vital role in supporting national exports. Standardization of container terminals is considered a key requirement for Indonesia's future industries, from manufacturing and processed agribusiness to downstream industries.
Therefore, Pelindo is deemed necessary to transform from a mere port operator to a national supply chain integrator. After all, accelerating the flow of goods through ports is also crucial for Indonesia's investment attractiveness amidst global competition. Port efficiency will improve the certainty of goods distribution times and reduce industrial logistics costs. This is considered crucial for Indonesia to become not only a consumer market but also a member of the global supply chain or Global Value Chain (GVC).
(ISL News Editorial Team/Corcom SPTP).
