Govt to find middle-class taxpayers in tax census next week

The government expects to find new taxpayers in the national tax census, which is slated to begin on Sept. 30, a top official says.

Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said that the new taxpayers would optimize the tax revenues.

"Remember that currently we only have 10 million taxpayers out of a population of 237 million, so there is a huge gap [between the population and taxable citizens]," Hatta said on Friday as quoted by Antara news agency.

Hatta said that the government hoped it would find new taxpayers mainly from the middle class.

"We expect we will be able to estimate our potential tax revenue after the tax census thanks to the growth of the new middle class by between 8 million and 9 million people annually," he said.

According to Hatta, the census would involve officers from the Tax Office, Finance Ministry and National Statistics Agency (BPS).

With the new taxpayers, he added, the government expected to achieve the target of revenue increase by 0.06 percent from 12.6 percent this year to 12.66 percent in 2012.

"The House of Representatives wants us to hike up the tax ratio by 0.06 percent. Therefore, there will be extra revenue by Rp 5 trillion (US$570 million). I think that target is achievable as long as we keep managing our tax ratio," he said.