The tax office will step up its investigation on 15 business sectors, to ensure that they have fully complied with the tax regulation, a senior tax official says.
Director of Investigations and Tax Billing at the Directorate General of Taxes Otto Endy Panjaitan said in Jakarta last week that the investigation of 15 business sectors would be intensified because their tax payments were not yet in “parallel” with the growth in their incomes.
“The 15 sectors booked significant increases in their turnovers during the period of 2007 and 2009. However, the growth in their tax payments was still not in parallel with the sharp increase in their turnovers,” Otto told journalists on Friday.
The 15 business sectors include mining, oil, gas, cement, lime and gypsum industries; base metal industry; construction services; automotive industries, reparation and after-sale services and
vehicle fuel retailers; telecommunications; financial intermediaries (except insurance and pension funds), real estate and advertising businesses.
However, Otto denied that the investigations would be carried out because they had avoided paying taxes.
“We will only investigate their tax compliance. It’s a normal procedure,” he said, adding that an agreement had been signed with the National Police to accelerate the investigations.
Apart from the fact that the tax payments did not parallel growth in turnovers, the 15 industrial sectors also showed a significant amount of correction in tax payments.
In the first semester of this year, the office investigated 20,717 cases — most of which were among the 15 business sectors. The tax office had saved up to Rp 3.58 trillion from tax refund discrepancies found in the investigations, he said.
Meanwhile, Petrus Tambunan, the director for tax compliance, said the total tax receipts during the first semester of this year had jumped markedly compared to the total over the same period last year.
Tax receipts from the non-oil and gas sectors, for example, reached a total of Rp 263 trillion, or 43.5 percent of the government’s target of Rp 606.1 trillion this year.
“If included with those in the oil and gas sector, the amount reached Rp 264.1 trillion, or 44.1 percent of the total target,” he said.
Of the total amount on the tax receipts during the first semester, about Rp 72 trillion came from corporate income tax, and Rp 1.9 trillion was from individual income tax, Petrus said.
The tax receipt target could be achieved although the amount of tax payment during the first semester was still below half of the target. “The increase in consumer spending during the Idul Fitri holidays in September and during the year-end holidays will result in higher growth in tax payments,” he said.
To meet its target, the government also plans to intensify its tax compliance program among companies and individuals already registered with the tax office, Petrus said.
“We will also step up our campaign to increase the number of taxpayers,” he said.
Petrus said the processing industry had paid the largest amount of taxes during the first semester, reaching Rp 95 trillion, followed by trade services with Rp 39.8 trillion, and financial intermediary services with Rp 29.5 trillion. Transportation and communication services came in fourth with Rp 16 trillion and mining industry followed with Rp 15.8 trillion. (ebf)
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