Setting Up a PMA Company in Bali in 2026: What Is Closed, What Is Open, and What It Costs

Since the third week of May 2026 the Bali provincial government, with the approval of the Minister of Investment, has shut the Online Single Submission (OSS) licensing system to new foreign-investment licences in eighteen business classifications. The list catches villa operation, small hotels, management consulting, car and motorbike rental, cafés, several retail lines and gyms: most of what small foreign investors have set up in Bali over the past fifteen years. Everything else remains open on the national terms. This guide sets out what the closure is and what it is not, what a foreign investor can still do in Bali, how the process runs, and what it costs.

What closed, and how

An Indonesian company with any foreign shareholding is a Penanaman Modal Asing, or foreign investment company (PMA), and every PMA is licensed through OSS against one or more five-digit codes of the Indonesian standard industrial classification (KBLI). Since May 2026, an application by a PMA for a project location in Bali Province under any of the eighteen codes below does not proceed. A Bali licensing agency’s bulletin of 18 May 2026 gives the system’s message as “Pengajuan Tidak Dapat Dilanjutkan”, application cannot be continued, which is as much explanation as the system gives.

The closure was approved by the Minister of Investment and Downstream Industry, Rosan Roeslani, before it took effect (DETIK Bali, 22 July 2026) and was announced publicly by Governor I Wayan Koster on 22 and 23 July 2026, two months after the fact (ANTARA, 23 July 2026). It runs “until further policy”. No provincial regulation, gubernatorial decree or ministerial instrument number has been published for it; the reported origin is a letter from the Governor to the Minister dated 28 January 2026, which according to one consultancy named nine codes. The implemented list has eighteen.

KBLI	Activity	What it covers in practice
55110, 55120	Star-rated and melati hotels with a building area under 6,000 m²	Boutique and budget hotels
55900	Other accommodation	Villa and guesthouse operation
68111	Real estate owned or leased	Villa ownership, leasing and rental businesses
70209, 70204	Other management consulting; industrial management consulting	The general consultancy code used by most small foreign service companies
77100, 77311	Car, bus and truck rental; motorbike rental	Vehicle rental (motorbikes were closed first, reported 9 July 2026)
47711, 47511, 47249, 47991	Retail of clothing, textiles, other food, and agricultural food products	Boutiques, textile shops, delicatessens, produce stalls
56303	Drinking house or café	Cafés and coffee shops
56305	Traditional medicine house or shop	Jamu and herbal outlets
14120	Tailoring and made-to-order clothing	Tailors and custom garment makers
93111, 93116, 93191	Stadium facilities; fitness centres; sports event promoters	Gyms, studios, event organisers

Source: the Governor’s announcement as reported by ANTARA and GALERT, 23 July 2026. The code numbers are the authoritative part; the descriptions are translated from the reporting and should be checked against the KBLI register in OSS.

The province’s stated reason is that foreign companies were entering sectors meant for micro, small and medium enterprises, often from a virtual office rather than a real operating presence, and competing with local operators in fields “that should encourage partnerships with cooperatives and MSMEs”. Bali’s licensing evaluation team had flagged the pattern a year earlier, including companies registered under a real-estate code while operating villa accommodation. The February 2026 provincial legislature debate on foreign-dominated motorbike rental and digitally marketed accommodation was the last step before the closure. Whatever one thinks of the policy, its motive is not obscure.

What it is not

It is not a change to the national investment list. Presidential Regulation 10/2021, as amended by 49/2021, is unchanged. None of the eighteen codes carries a foreign-ownership condition nationally; a management consultancy or a villa operating company can still be licensed in Lombok, Jakarta or anywhere else in Indonesia on the ordinary PMA terms. The closure is provincial and administrative: it withdraws licensing access for a Bali location, nothing more. The national conditions are listed on the BUPM pages of this site.

It is not a construction moratorium. Despite two years of announcements, no province-wide building freeze has been enacted; the Governor rejected one in January 2025 in favour of what he called strict control. What binds a building in Bali is zoning under the regency spatial plans, conformity through KKPR, the 15-metre height limit in Perda Bali 2/2023 Art 100, and the building approval (PBG) and function certificate (SLF) that must precede construction and occupation respectively. The Bingin Beach demolitions of July 2025 were a land-status action against structures on state and regency land, not a moratorium. The property guide covers this ground.

It is not waived for a larger investment. Nothing in the reporting provides a capital-based exemption. The closure operates on licensing access, not on capitalisation, and the ordinary capital tests continue to apply to everything that remains open.

It is not an invitation to use a nominee. Closing the licensed route into villa and accommodation businesses makes the Indonesian nominee look attractive to exactly the people it will ruin. A nominee land arrangement is void under the Basic Agrarian Law (UUPA Art 26(2)): the land falls to the state and the money paid cannot be recovered. Nominee shareholding agreements are null under the Investment Law (Law 25/2007 Art 33). Bali’s Governor signed a provincial regulation on 24 February 2026 prohibiting nominee land transfers by foreigners, with sanctions running to permit revocation and demolition, and since 2 January 2026 the new criminal code punishes procuring false statements in an authentic deed with up to seven years’ imprisonment (Law 1/2023 Art 394). Two Supreme Court cassation decisions from 2022 show the only two outcomes: the foreigner loses the land to a third party, or loses it to the nominee. Either way the foreigner gets nothing.

Companies already licensed in a closed code

The reporting is explicit on one point and silent on another. Explicit: a company must continue to file its quarterly investment activity report (LKPM) for a KBLI that has been deactivated or removed from the licensing system. Deactivation of a licence does not extinguish the reporting duty. Silent: whether licences already issued in the eighteen codes remain valid indefinitely. The same May bulletin reports that pre-closure licences are unaffected but that the provincial investment office is conducting field inspections and audits of active PMA companies in the restricted codes; HIPMI Bali, the young entrepreneurs’ association, was quoted in February 2026 saying such businesses “will be compelled to adjust or restructure their operations”. The prudent reading is that an existing licence is a licence to operate as declared, from the address declared, with reports filed on time, and that an inspector may call to check. A company that registered under a real-estate code and runs villas, or that lists a virtual office and operates from a shophouse in Canggu, is the case the closure was written for.

Adding a closed code to an existing Bali company is the same OSS application as a new one, and on current reporting it fails the same way.

The Jakarta registration question

Several agencies now advertise a workaround: register the company with a Jakarta address, then operate in Bali. OSS licenses a company per project location, and an activity carried on in Bali needs a Bali location on the licence; that is precisely the application the closure blocks. A Jakarta company that conducts no commercial activity in Bali, a holding company owning a Bali asset for instance, is a different and legitimate case. A company whose entire business is a villa in Pererenan and whose registered office is a serviced desk in Sudirman is the virtual-office pattern the province named as its reason for acting. OSS behaviour is administrative and may change; Okusi does not structure around the closure, and will not advise a client to.

The question clients now ask in the same breath, whether to set up in Lombok or Labuan Bajo instead, has a cleaner answer. Both lie outside Bali Province, the eighteen codes are open there on the national terms, and a company that genuinely operates there is licensed there without difficulty.

What remains open in Bali

Everything not on the list, subject to the national conditions that apply anywhere in Indonesia. Restaurants (KBLI 56101) and bars (56301) carry no foreign-ownership condition nationally, though a café (56303) is closed; the line between the two is now drawn by the KBLI description rather than the menu, and an application that looks like a café wearing a restaurant code should expect scrutiny. Alcohol licensing remains a regional matter with its own stack. Software and digital services, advertising and design, wholesale and import trade, construction and engineering (with the professional licensing those carry), education under its sector rules, property management on a fee or contract basis (68200, which is not 68111), spas and wellness (96122), and travel agencies (79121, which appeared in the Governor’s January letter but not in the final list, as far as the reporting shows) are all open. Guesthouses of the pondok wisata kind (55130) are reserved nationally for small enterprises and were never available to a PMA anywhere.

Open means open to apply. The premises still need zoning conformity (KKPR, or the regency’s ITR letter), an environmental statement (SPPL) for most small operations, PBG and SLF for any building, and a tourism business registration where the code is a tourism one. Okusi identifies these for the chosen location before quoting, because a licence for a restaurant in a green zone is not a licence.

The process, and what Bali adds to it

The national sequence is the one described in the process guide: name reservation, deed of establishment before a notary, ratification by the Ministry of Law, tax number, business identification number (NIB) and the risk-based licence through OSS, bank account, and proof of the capital deposit to the Ministry within sixty days of the deed. Bali adds three things. First, a real address: the province’s objection was to virtual offices, and a Bali PMA should be registered where it operates, with a lease in the company’s name. Second, the local permit stack above, which depends on the regency as much as the code. Third, a KBLI screen before anything is signed, against the eighteen codes and the national list both. The screen takes a day. Discovering the problem at the OSS stage costs a deed.

Capital, visas and costs

The capital tests are national and unchanged by the closure. Paid-up capital is a minimum of Rp 2.5 billion per company under Ministry of Investment Regulation 5/2025, reduced from Rp 10 billion in October 2025, and it must stay in the company’s Indonesian bank account for twelve months after deposit except for permitted business uses. Separately, the investment plan must exceed Rp 10 billion per five-digit KBLI per project location, excluding land and buildings; food and beverage codes count towards a single plan per city. The capital guide and the bank account guide deal with the mechanics.

The owner’s stay follows from the company by one of two doors. A shareholder holding at least Rp 10 billion in shares qualifies for an investor KITAS; Okusi’s Bali office handles this as BALI - Investor KITAS / Visa Complete at US$ 1,283. Below that threshold, an owner who works in the business takes the employment route, a ratified RPTKA and a work KITAS, as BALI - New Work Permit & Visa (KITAS & RPTKA) - BOD at US$ 865 plus the DKPTKA levy of USD 100 per month per foreign worker. The job-role guide explains which positions a foreigner may hold.

Okusi’s Bali PMA Company package is US$ 1,919 and covers the deed and articles, Ministry ratification, NIB, tax numbers and the risk-based licences or standard certificates for the chosen codes, English translations of the company documents, bank account assistance, and business-visa sponsorship while establishment is in progress. Local permits for the premises are identified and quoted before engagement. Accounting and tax reporting for a non-VAT company is Accountancy & Tax Reporting - Non-VAT Company at US$ 1,703 a year.

For a business with genuine Indonesian owners, a local PT in Bali (Local PT Company - Bali, US$ 1,579) is unaffected by the closure, and a foreigner may serve as its director or commissioner on a work permit. It is not a vehicle for a foreign owner of a closed activity; a local PT whose shareholders hold the business for a foreigner is a nominee company with a different name.

The decision before the engagement

A foreign investor planning a Bali company in 2026 has one question to settle before fees are discussed: what will the company actually do, described honestly enough to map to a KBLI code. If the code is open, the process is the national one with Bali’s permits added. If it is on the list, there are three honest routes. A different activity, where the business is in fact something other than a villa, a café or a consultancy. A location outside Bali Province, where the business genuinely operates. Or a real Indonesian partner with real shares and real money at risk. A fourth route is offered in every second café in Canggu. It ends in a courtroom, and the foreigner loses.

Where Okusi fits

Okusi Associates has operated in Indonesia since 1997 and from its own Bali office since 2006, now at Istana Kuta Galeria, Blok Techno #1, Jalan Patih Jelantik, Kuta. The Bali team screens the KBLI before any engagement, establishes Bali PMA Company companies in the fields that remain open, handles the premises permits, sponsors investor and work KITAS, and runs the accounting and LKPM reporting that keeps a licence worth having. Current fees for anything unlisted are quoted on enquiry.