Today in Indonesia, public distrust toward tax officials has grown over cases of them distorting taxpayers’ obligations, with the infamous case of Gayus Tambunan and the latest high-profile case being probed by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati is no stranger to such dislike and distrust. She lays out her vision straight: The tax office must build the reputation that it is accountable and effective in collecting taxes.

And she means business in getting tough with the “bad guys” at the tax office, although she says most tax officials are “the silent” and “good ones”.

“We give positive incentives for the good ones and take on the bad guys. Be consistent on that and that will reverse the morality of tax officials,” Sri Mulyani said in an interview with The Jakarta Post at the directorate general of taxation’s headquarters on Tuesday.

“I’m always obsessed and passionate about institutional reforms,” added the former World Bank managing director, who earned her reputation by reforming the Finance Ministry in her previous term as finance minister from 2005 to 2010, including by introducing a set of ethics and sanctions at the tax office.

Her fresh plan to reform the tax office comes as the nation struggles to boost its historically low tax ratio of around 11 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and collect revenues to aid infrastructure and social programs that are the priorities of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s tenure.

First on the agenda is to improve and connect database and benchmarks of tax offices nationwide, as well as to remove tax collection hindrances. Such issues are seen as fundamental.

The absence of a reliable database means tax officials have no precise and accurate economic activities mapping, which leads to less precise tax revenue targets.

When tax officials know they have solid data and believe in their professionalism, they will be confident when knocking on the doors of any taxpayers who are obliged to pay taxes.

On the other side, taxpayers will not feel they are subject to harassment by the tax officials, Sri Mulyani said.

“I believe some layers of my tax colleagues are very competent and capable but they haven’t been working optimally all this time maybe because we made inaccurate targets,” she added.

The government set sky-high tax collection targets and failed to achieve them in the last two years. This year’s tax revenue target is around 30 percent higher than last year’s achievement.

Unrealistic targets have often led to tax officials taking all means to meet them, observers say.

But Sri Mulyani said she had been told systemic or instructed corruption no longer existed at the tax office, although she admitted that abusive practices against taxpayers remained.

“If the information is accurate, we can just narrow it down to who the bad guys are and just discharge them as shock therapy,” said one of the world’s most powerful women, according to Forbes.

She expressed hope that the ongoing tax amnesty could provide the much-needed database for the tax office. The program, which lasts from this July to next March, has so far collected information on around Rp 2 quadrillion (US$154.7 billion) worth of assets, revealing the size of undeclared economic activities belonging to Indonesians.

“Thanks to the tax amnesty, public awareness on tax compliance has increased. This is clearly beneficial because successful tax collection also depends on the presence of a tax-savvy society,” said Bawono Kristiaji, a partner at Danny Darussalam Tax Center.

Tax reforms this time, he added, would be more successful because, politically, the efforts were fully backed up by the President.

Center for Indonesia Taxation Analysis (CITA) executive director Yustinus Prastowo said the tax office was in dire need of a “responsible, credible and competent leader” due to the widespread public distrust of tax officials.

“If necessary, the government can replace the current director general,” he added.

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