In a sting operation on Monday evening, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested middle-ranking tax official Handang Soekarno for allegedly receiving a US$148,500 bribe from a businessman.

The businessman, identified as Rajamohanan Nair, a director of Jakarta-based export firm PT EK Prima Ekspor Indonesia, is believed to have promised Handang Rp 6 billion in bribes, and had purportedly tried to defy the company’s taxation obligations amounting to Rp 78 billion ($ 5.8 million).

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Tuesday she had laid out plans to expedite “institutional reform” in her ministry’s Directorate General of Taxation. The reform measures will focus primarily on hunting down the “traitors” she said had hampered tax collection in the country.

“This is a good opportunity [to speed up reform],” said Sri Mulyani, whose appointment to the Cabinet in July has been seen by many as an attempt on Jokowi’s part to ensure the smooth implementation of his flagship tax amnesty.

The finance minister rebuffed concerns that the arrest would affect the country’s ongoing tax amnesty, saying that she would urge all taxpayers to help uncover corruption in the tax office and report companies that avoided their tax liabilities. “I’d say this is a step to prove that you [taxpayers] can trust us,” she added.

She warned her subordinates to support the reforms or she would allow other institutions, such as the KPK, to “intervene”.

The antigraft body backed the minister’s commitment, saying that the arrest had provided an opportunity for the KPK to work with the ministry to reform the nation’s tax office.

“We need to have trust in the tax office. The KPK believes that a majority of tax officials have integrity. After the arrest, we are committed to cooperating with the Finance Ministry in its internal reforms,” KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo told a press conference at the headquarters of the antigraft body.

Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution, who led the tax office between 2006 and 2009 and will participate in the effort to revamp and reform the tax office, admitted that the existing tax system “still permitted room for wrongdoing”.

In a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Jokowi told those serving in his administration to be serious about the business of anticorruption, instructing his ministers to start carrying out “major overhauls to tax and state income management”, particularly in the natural resources sector.

The President has also stepped up efforts to eradicate illegal levies by establishing a special task force authorized with carrying out investigations, including sting operations, to combat a decades-long practice that has long hampered the efficiency of public services across the country.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung shares the view of Sri Mulyani, saying that the arrest will build public trust as the public will see the incident as proof that the government is resolute in upholding the law.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently called on Indonesia to reform its tax authorities through better administrative practices and by strengthening the roles of tax officials. The OECD argues that this will create a culture of tax compliance in the future and improve Indonesia’s relatively weak tax base.

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