T

he Tax Directorate General should increase its efforts to collect taxes from certain sectors that have been slow to pay, such as mining, a lawmaker says.

Harry Azhar Azis from the House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing financial affairs, said the Tax Directorate General needed to get a read on all the businesspersons working in the sector. 

'€œOlder businesspersons have complained of being constantly chased by tax collectors while new players are left alone,'€ Harry said on Friday as quoted by kompas.com.

Taxes collected by the directorate in the first two months of this year amounted to only Rp 137.65 trillion (US$12.04 billion), or 12.4 percent out of a target of Rp 1.11 quadrillion.

Harry appreciated that the directorate had asked the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to help it collect taxes from mining companies.

He said, however, that the move was not optimal because the KPK's main purpose was to take action against corruption.

Meanwhile, he went on to say that most tax fraud cases frequently revolved around tax subjects trying to avoid paying. Thus, he said, preventing tax fraud by law enforcement was more urgent than taking down corruptors.

Harry also said that the directorate should not have access to bank accounts as it had requested.

He said the request would confuse the market because it was the authority of the Financial Services Authority (OJK), not the Taxation Directorate General. (put)