Indonesia CPD: 30 Credits and a New Ethics Quota

On 1 July 2025, Indonesia's accountancy institute did something only a handful of bodies worldwide have done: it carved out a mandatory annual ethics quota and made it a separate, reportable obligation. The first reporting deadline under that rule fell on 31 January 2026.

It is the most recent substantive CPD change we found anywhere in Asia, and it sits on top of a two-tier system that is worth understanding on its own terms.

Two regimes, two very different kinds of enforcement

Indonesia separates licensed public accountants from institute members, and the difference is not cosmetic.

Licensed public accountants (Akuntan Publik) are regulated by the state. Their CPD obligation sits in a Ministry of Finance regulation, is supervised by the Pusat Pembinaan Profesi Keuangan (PPPK) within the ministry, and is backed by written warnings, fines and licence consequences.

Institute members holding the Chartered Accountant Indonesia designation are governed by the institute's own decisions, enforced through association sanctions that escalate to withdrawal of the designation.

This is the same licensed-versus-member split we have examined in CPD for accountants generally, but Indonesia draws the line unusually sharply: one population answers to a ministry, the other to a professional body, and the credit requirements are not identical.

The state regime: what a licensed public accountant must do

The governing instrument is Peraturan Menteri Keuangan Nomor 186/PMK.01/2021, published in Berita Negara 2021 No. 1372, determined on 14 December 2021 and promulgated the following day, taking effect three months after promulgation. It revoked the 2017 regulation it replaced.

Article 37 sets the annual obligation:

• At least 30 credits a year from structured continuing education, delivered or recognised by the professional association for public accountants and/or by PPPK
• At most 10 credits a year from unstructured training, which must be verified by the professional association
• Within the structured credits: at least 4 credits relating to the supervision and oversight of public accountants and audit firms
• And at least 16 credits relating to accounting and/or assurance services

One credit equals 50 effective minutes.

Reporting is due by the end of January in the following year, filed through an electronic system. Breach of the credit requirements attracts a written warning; breach of the reporting duty can attract a recommendation of specified action and a fine.

There are two exemptions: newly licensed public accountants in their first year, and those whose practice was suspended through serious illness. The first-year exemption is a common feature internationally — we cover the general pattern in when your CPD cycle starts.

The 40-credit figure, and why it is both right and wrong

You will see "40 SKP per year" quoted widely for Indonesian public accountants. It is worth being precise, because the number does appear in the regulation — just not in the article that sets the annual requirement.

The annual article sets a floor of 30 structured credits and a cap of 10 unstructured. Forty appears in three other places:

• Carry-forward is available only on credits in excess of 40 in the current year, capped at 10 carried forward
• Resuming assurance services after a voluntary suspension requires 40 credits in the preceding year
• Licence renewal requires at least 120 credits across the three preceding years

Since thirty credits a year across three years comes to ninety, the 120-credit renewal test means a licensed public accountant must in practice average forty credits a year to keep the licence. So "40 a year" is a fair description of the effective requirement and a misquotation of the annual article.

The accurate formulation, and the one we would use: at least 30 structured credits a year, up to 10 unstructured, and at least 120 credits across the three years preceding licence renewal. This is a good illustration of why carry-forward rules cannot be read apart from the renewal test they sit alongside.

The institute regime, and the 2025 ethics rule

Institute members holding the Chartered Accountant Indonesia designation are subject to a 2012 decision of the institute's national board. It requires:

• At least 120 credits across a three-year period
• At least 30 credits in any one year
• Reporting by the end of January in the following year

Rather than a structured/unstructured split, that decision works through per-activity caps: postgraduate study up to 90 credits per three years, distance learning 36, writing 60, research 90, and technical-committee service 30 a year to a maximum of 90 per cycle.

It set no ethics minimum at all — which is exactly the gap the 2025 rule closed.

Peraturan Organisasi No. 1 of 2025

Determined in Jakarta on 1 July 2025 and in force from that date, the institute's organisational regulation on mandatory ethics CPD provides:

• At least 4 credits a year of continuing education on the Indonesian code of ethics
• Applying to both Anggota Utama and Anggota Madya who hold a state accountant register entry or an institute certificate — which extends the ethics duty to a membership class the 2012 decision did not reach
• Qualifying activity must have learning outcomes referring to the Indonesian code of ethics: training, courses, seminars, publications and relevant research all count
• Reported by 31 January of the following year, as part of the annual CPD report
• Recognised providers: regulators, accountancy bodies that are IFAC members, government-recognised accounting associations, and other institute-recognised entities

Dedicated ethics quotas are rare. CPA Canada sets four hours per rolling three-year period; Romania requires two structured hours a year; most European regimes set none at all. Indonesia's four credits a year is, in annual terms, among the most demanding ethics requirements we have found.

Where the rules are silent

Two things we are not going to tell you, because the instruments do not say them.

There is no stated record-retention period for CPD evidence in any of the three instruments above. The Ministry of Finance regulation does contain a five-year retention rule, but it applies to audit working papers after a public accountant resigns — not to continuing education records. Transplanting it would be an invention. If you want a sense of what to keep regardless, our CPD record examples assume you keep more than the minimum.

We are also not citing the 2012 decision by number. The scanned copy we worked from is internally inconsistent on its own reference and carries no promulgation date, so we have described its content and left the citation to be taken from a clean official copy.

The Ministry of Finance regulation itself is retrievable through Indonesia's national regulatory database at peraturan.go.id.

What to take from this

If you are a licensed Indonesian public accountant, plan for forty credits a year even though the annual article says thirty, because the three-year renewal test is what actually binds. If you are an institute member, the 2025 ethics rule is new, it applies to you, and it is reported separately within your annual return.

And if you are comparing Indonesia with a Western regime, note the subject-level prescription: four credits on oversight, sixteen on accounting and assurance, four on ethics. As with what counts as CPD everywhere, the total is the least informative part of the rule.

Indonesia is also the most prescriptive of the Asian regimes we have examined at source. Türkiye runs two parallel 120-credit regimes with quarterly filing. Vietnam places the rule in ministry circulars and counts its year from 16 August. Thailand regulates bookkeepers through a ministry department and auditors through the professional body, which is the reverse of Indonesia's arrangement.