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Tax bill deliberations to continue amid protest from factions
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Lawmakers are pictured inside the House of Representatives building. House Speaker Ade Komarudin chaired a House Steering Committee on Monday to decide that deliberations of a tax amnesty bill would go ahead amid protests from a number of factions. (Tempo/-)
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mid protest from several factions, including Gerindra, the House of Representatives on Monday authorized House Commission XI overseeing banking and finance affairs to start the deliberations over a tax amnesty bill.
The decision was made during a meeting of the House Steering Committee (Bamus) chaired by House Speaker Ade Komarudin.
The meeting decided that the deliberations would start on Tuesday, although on April 6 the same committee decided that the deliberations would only begin after a consultative meeting between House leaders and President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
"We should pass the tax amnesty bill into a law immediately, to give hope to the national economy," Ade said, adding that he had signed a letter to start the deliberations.
As the deliberation starts, the meeting will be opened by a hearing between Commission XI and a minister assigned by President Jokowi.
Commenting on the decision to start deliberations, House Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon said it was invalid because he had not been invited to the meeting and such a meeting should have been chaired at least by two House leaders.
He insisted that the deliberations could only start after a consultative meeting with the President.
Meanwhile, United Development Party (PPP) faction chairman Dimyati Natakusumah supported Ade’s move, stressing that the House Steering Committee had agreed with the decision.
Other support came from Golkar Party faction's secretary Azis Syamsuddin, who said there were four factions that wanted a consultancy meeting, while the other six agreed to go ahead with the deliberations.
If the bill is passed into law, the government could offer tax discounts to individuals and companies who want to declare their untaxed wealth. The policy is expected to persuade Indonesians who parked their wealth overseas to bring it back home to Indonesia.
This year's tax revenue target is Rp 1.36 quadrillion (US$102.64 billion), 28.2 percent higher than the Rp 1.06 quadrillion achieved in 2015. (bbn)
