diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 90cc4f59..7b8eaa5d 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ include AUTHORS
 include COPYING
 include GPL
 include pungi.spec
+include setup.cfg
 include tox.ini
 include share/*
 include share/multilib/*
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ba152673
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[sdist]
+formats=bztar
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index a6f8bee5..08dafc1e 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -5,14 +5,9 @@
 import os
 import glob
 
-import distutils.command.sdist
 from setuptools import setup
 
 
-# override default tarball format with bzip2
-distutils.command.sdist.sdist.default_format = {"posix": "bztar"}
-
-
 # recursively scan for python modules to be included
 package_root_dirs = ["pungi", "pungi_utils"]
 packages = set()