TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Tax amnesty may rescue state's cash flow, says lawmaker
M
Change Size
M. Misbakhun (tribunnews.com) (tribunnews.com)
M. Misbakhun (tribunnews.com)
The government predicted a shortfall in the 2015 tax revenue, which would disturb the government's cash flow. Amid such a situation, a tax amnesty policy'which observers believe could lead to a fraud in the implementation'is needed, says a lawmaker.
Member of House of Representatives' Commission XI overseeing financial issues M. Misbakhun said on Friday that the House proposed the tax amnesty program to answer the serious revenue shortfall and prevent the nation from having more debt in 2015.
Finance Ministry's taxation director general Sigit Priadi Pramudito admitted that he was very troubled with the minimum amount of tax collected on September, because the amount'needed to boost the government's programs'was too far from the 2015 state budget's target.
'We urge businesspeople to pay their tax bill up front,' Sigit stated in the meeting with House's commission overseeing state revenue on Friday, claiming that he had visited some of the biggest businesspeople in the country to do so.
As of Sept. 30, the tax agency had collected Rp 686.27 trillion (US$51.1 billion), or 53 percent of the targeted amount in the 2015 revised-state budget. The tax collection was also lower than the tax collection in the same period of 2014 at Rp 688 trillion, or 64.16 percent of the target.
Sigit estimated that there would be Rp 1.181 quadrillion worth of taxes in 2015. The amount represent 91.3 percent of the targeted Rp 1.294 quadrillion. He was optimistic to close the gap to only around Rp 112.5 trillion in the last 3 months of the year.
Meanwhile, Finance Ministry's custom director general Heru Pambudi said he had the 2016 custom target reduced to around Rp 186.52 trillion, or Rp 194.99 trillion lower compared to the 2015 revised budget of Rp 194.99 trillion.
Misbakhun was pessimistic that the realized tax revenue would be more than 90 percent of the target. He urged the government to revise down the 2016 revenue target.
In 2016, the government targeted Rp 1.318 quadrillion in tax revenue, or a 5.95 percent increase compared to the 2015 target'which seems unlikely at this point.
"We should not allow an excessive target of tax revenue that ends in a negative realization, and at the same time burdens the economy and leads to an enormous contraction in business. In a slowing economy, we should not squeeze businesspeople,' said Misbakhun. (ags/bbn)
