Business Registry in Indonesia: Checking the AHU Record and NIB

The business registry in Indonesia is open to anyone. The Ministry of Law keeps the company register, and the Company Law says that register is open to the public (UU 40/2007, Article 29(5)). So before you sign with a supplier, take on a partner or buy a company, you can see what the official record says about it. Three records do most of the work: the company’s entry at the Ministry, its business identification number (NIB, Nomor Induk Berusaha), and its beneficial-owner record. Each answers a different question.

In practice the Ministry sells a company’s data as a download from its AHU Online site, for a small government fee set by PP 30/2026: either the full record, or the record as at the latest change. AHU (Administrasi Hukum Umum) is the Ministry’s Directorate General of General Legal Administration, which runs the register.

Three records, and what each one answers

Each record is kept by a different body, and none of them replaces the other two.

Where to look, and what you will find

	Company record (AHU)	NIB	Beneficial owners
Kept by	The Ministry of Law (Company Law, Article 29(1))	The Online Single Submission system, OSS (PP 28/2025, Article 206)	The Ministry of Law, as the company declares it (Perpres 13/2018)
Shows	Identity, capital, deeds, shareholders and board	Licensed activities, investment status and each licence's status	Who really stands behind the company
How you get it	Bought as a download from AHU Online (in practice)	Ask the company for the NIB and its attachment	Ask the Ministry for it

What the business registry in Indonesia shows

The Company Law sets out what the register holds (Article 29(2)). In plain English:

• the company’s name, its registered seat and its full address
• its purpose, business activities and duration
• its capital
• the deed of establishment and the Ministry’s decision approving the company
• each amendment to the articles, with the Ministry’s approval or its receipt of the notification
• the notary who drew up those deeds
• the names and addresses of the shareholders, directors and commissioners
• any dissolution, or the end of the company’s legal status
• the balance sheet and profit and loss account, but only for a company that must be audited

That last item is the exception rather than the rule, because only some companies need a statutory audit at all.

This is the company register (Daftar Perseroan), kept in the Ministry’s SABH system (Sistem Administrasi Badan Hukum). Both downloads in the fee schedule come from it. A single-founder company, the perseroan perorangan, has a search of its own on the Ministry’s site.

What the NIB adds

The NIB is a business’s single identity and its proof of registration, issued through OSS (PP 28/2025, Article 206). For a company, the profile, capital, tax number and business classification code (KBLI, Klasifikasi Baku Lapangan Usaha Indonesia) on the NIB are drawn from the Ministry of Law’s system (Article 207). So the NIB and the AHU record should tell the same story. Where they do not, ask the company why.

Ask for the NIB together with its attachment. The face of the document shows whether the company is a PMA (Penanaman Modal Asing, foreign investment) or PMDN (Penanaman Modal Dalam Negeri, domestic investment) business, its KBLI codes and its scale.

The attachment lists each business line with its risk level, the licence that line needs, and where that licence stands (Permeninves/BKPM 5/2025, Lampiran VIII). An NIB document may also carry a QR code that can be scanned to validate it (Article 332(2)(d)). Our guide to how risk levels and KBLI codes work explains what each level asks of a business.

The NIB also shows the company’s tax number (NPWP, Nomor Pokok Wajib Pajak). Whether that number is active, and whether the company is registered for VAT, is a separate question the NIB does not answer; the NPWP registration guide explains how the number works.

Who owns it: the beneficial-owner record

The beneficial owner is the person who ultimately owns or controls a company. This record is not open to browse. Any person may ask the Ministry for a company’s beneficial-owner information, and the Ministry deals with the request under the public-information law (Perpres 13/2018, Article 29; Permenkumham 15/2019, Article 14). The Ministry gives banks, notaries and others with reporting duties access to the record for their own customer checks, as it does law enforcement and government agencies (Perpres 13/2018, Articles 27 and 28).

Two published lists worth a look

The Ministry names companies that have not reported their beneficial owner, in an electronic announcement on its website (Permenkum 2/2025, Articles 22 and 23). In practice the list is linked from its beneficial ownership site. A company on it has a gap in its filings that is worth raising before you sign.

It also keeps a provisional list of inactive companies: companies that have notified no update since 12 February 2021, not even a reappointment of their board (Circular AHU-AH.01-36 of 2026). Being on it means the record has not kept pace, which is not the same as having stopped trading.

Where checks go wrong

What this means for you

A look at the business registry in Indonesia costs a small government fee and a little reading, and it tells you who you are dealing with before money moves. We can run these checks for you, within what the public records allow, and say plainly what the records show and what they leave open.

If the company is one you might buy, our shelf companies come with their history disclosed before you commit. If the record in question is your own, keeping it current is company secretarial work, and how a change to your own company’s record is registered explains the Ministry’s examination.