Facing a possible shortfall in tax revenue amid slower economic growth, the government is considering collecting higher dividends from state enterprises this year, including state oil and gas company PT Pertamina, senior officials revealed Tuesday.
Pertamina, the biggest dividend contributor to the state coffers, was earlier required to pay dividends of as much as 45 percent of the company’s net profit, but secretary to the State Minister for State Enterprises, Muhammad Said Didu, said the government was considering increasing the figure.
“There is a plan to increase Pertamina’s dividend payment. We already have the figure, but I need to carry out further analysis on this matter,” he said.
The dividend paid by Pertamina usually represents about half of the total dividend paid by state enterprises. For the 2008 fiscal year, Pertamina’s dividend has been earmarked at Rp 13.59 trillion, up from Rp 11 trillion in 2007.
Pertamina booked a consolidated net profit of Rp 30.2 trillion (US$3.037 billion) in the 2008 fiscal year, up by 54.8 percent from Rp 19.51 trillion in 2007.
Due to lower crude oil prices, Pertamina estimates this year’s net profit will decrease to Rp 12 trillion.
But, Said Didu said the government had to ask Pertamina for higher dividends because the overall tax revenue was decreasing.
“In the 2009 revised state budget, the state enterprises must increase their dividend payment to the government, because the [revenue] target from tax has decreased slightly,” he said.
The tax office has reported that between January and June this year, the total amount of taxes collected had reached Rp 253.18 trillion, about 2.83 percent lower than the Rp 260.56 trillion recorded in the same period last year.
The figure represented 43.07 percent of the tax office’s estimated full-year tax revenue.
Tax revenues in the country have reduced as a result of the impact of the global financial crisis, with international demand for Indonesian exports dropping, thus hurting the performance of Indonesia’s export-oriented companies.
In addition to Pertamina, Said added the government was also considering collecting more dividends from other state firms.
“I will not mention which companies, as some of them are publicly listed companies and this may influence their share price.”
State Minister for State Enterprises Sofyan Djalil confirmed the government’s plan to ask for higher dividends from state owned companies.
“We have talked with the House’s budget committee. The state companies’ dividends payment will be increased to between Rp 28.5 and Rp 29 trillion,” Sofyan said.
Initially, the dividend had been set at Rp 26.1 trillion. Sofyan added the government would decide which state firms would be required to pay more dividends in the third quarter. (naf)
