T

he Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) says it has received an instruction from Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan to drop minor graft cases and instead focus more on pursuing large-scale money-laundering cases involving the country'€™s high-profile businessmen in the coming years.

KPK commissioner Laode Muhammad Syarif said Luhut had delivered the instruction during a closed-door meeting with KPK commissioners on Thursday at the KPK headquarters.

In the talk, the KPK was also told to pay more attention to the effort to curb tax evasion to help with the government'€™s plan to establish the controversial tax amnesty, which had been opposed by the previous KPK leadership and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK).

'€œWe have yet to discuss specific cases, but we will focus on money laundering and tax [cases] in the future,'€ Laode told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. He declined to elaborate on what other instructions Luhut gave to the newly inaugurated KPK leaders during the meeting.

Speaking after the meeting, Luhut said that under the tax amnesty plan tax evaders who paid their taxes could avoid criminal charges.

He said the plan was to increase government revenue and that the KPK would be the last resort, working to bring charges of money laundering against persistent tax evaders.

To realize the plan, Luhut said the KPK and the anti-money laundering task force established by his office as well as the Finance Ministry'€™s directorate general of taxation, would work out details for the joint cooperation in the near future.

Luhut said the government already had lists of tax evaders to be submitted to the KPK in the future for prosecution should they fail to take advantage of the tax amnesty once it was enacted.

'€œAs we all know that thousands of trillions of rupiah in tax remain unpaid, we want swift action. This is part of the effort to implement clean governance,'€ Luhut said on Thursday at the KPK headquarters.

The government of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has been working to meet increased tax revenue targets.

On Dec. 1 the director general of taxation Sigit Priadi Pramudito resigned just 10 months after his appointment amid reports that tax revenue had fallen well short of target.

In the meeting, Luhut also reminded the KPK to avoid stirring controversy in its future investigations into graft and money-laundering cases, adding that the KPK should work effectively in silence.

President Jokowi has repeatedly urged the KPK to avoid creating publicity stunts when investigating graft cases, following the anti-graft body'€™s standoff with the National Police early last year, after it named then National Police chief candidate Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan a bribery suspect in January.

Ever since, the government has repeatedly called on law enforcement institutions, including the KPK, to work cooperatively to prevent conflicts. In addition, the government has also sought to establish a regulation to limit public exposure of cases being handled by law enforcement institutions.

Luhut meanwhile denied suggestions that he had also instructed the KPK to launch a money-laundering probe into former president director of state-owned port operator PT Pelindo II, Richard Joost Lino, who is a close confidant of Luhut'€™s political rival Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

In a separate investigation, the National Police suspect that a significant amount of money from Pelindo II has been laundered by still unidentified persons.

'€œWe didn'€™t talk about it [Lino'€™s case] because it'€™s already ongoing. We talked about future investigations,'€ Luhut said.

Responding to critics of the tax amnesty plan, Luhut said the government would not grant any amnesty to graft, narcotics or terrorism convicts under the plan, and that money-laundering charges would only be used against high-profile businessmen should they refuse to pay their taxes in the future.
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