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Govt, House want tax amnesty bill passed this month
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A lawmaker attends the plenary meeting at the House of Representatives on March 17 to pass the disability bill. (Antara/Hafidz Mubarak A.)
T
he government and the House of Representatives have agreed to expedite deliberations on the tax amnesty bill with a target of passing the draft into law before the House's sitting period ends on April 29.
The agreement was reached in a consultation meeting between President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and the House speakers at the State Palace in Jakarta on Friday.
House speaker Ade Komaruddin said the consultation meeting was a follow-up to the prior recommendation of House Commission XI, which oversees banking and finance. Following the consultation meeting, Commission XI would proceed with the working meetings.
"Based on our schedule, [the tax amnesty bill] is to be passed before this session ends on April 29," he said.
He added that the House and the government had agreed that after passing the tax amnesty bill, they would proceed with the revision of the foreign exchange transaction law and the general tax system bill to improve the taxation system.
Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung stressed the economic importance of the tax amnesty amid the global slowdown. "The government needs capital inflows for infrastructure development and for improving competitiveness,” he said.
Once the bill is passed into law, the government will have a legal basis to offer tax discounts to individuals and companies who want to declare their untaxed offshore wealth and bring their assets back to Indonesia.
Earlier, Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Sukamdani Hariyadi said the association had been recommending a tax amnesty since the presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Jokowi’s predecessor.
"A tax amnesty will provide the right momentum, although the [targeted] additional tax revenues of Rp 175 trillion (US$13.4 billion) from the tax amnesty is too ambitious. We estimate that around Rp 70 trillion to Rp 80 trillion can be obtained from the tax amnesty," he said. (ags)
