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Jokowi takes charge of controversial tax amnesty
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (center), accompanied by First Lady Iriana (third left), greets visitors during an open-house event at the State Palace on Monday. (The Jakarta Post/Dhoni Setiawan)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has shown his determination on the Tax Amnesty Law, pledging to win the judicial review at the Constitutional Court and to directly supervise the law’s implementation.
The President said he believed the legal challenge posed no major obstacle to the law’s implementation. He expressed his optimism that the judicial panel would support the government’s stance.
"I’m preparing legal experts to genuinely explain the philosophy and significance of the tax amnesty to the Constitutional Court judges. I order the minister to pick the right persons, real experts, to do that,” he said during a gathering with editors at the State Palace in Jakarta on Thursday.
He underlined that the government had held a massive campaign at the grassroots level on the tax amnesty. “As for its implementation, I will directly monitor it and create a presidential task force aside from the ministerial one,” Jokowi said.
Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said the government targeted 10,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with revenue between Rp 4.8 billion and Rp 10 billion to join the program. In total, 600,000 SMEs were listed as taxpayers in the country.
The government eyes individual tycoons, depositors, as well as transfer-pricing perpetrators to participate in the program. “The portion of corruption-related offshore assets is small, less than 5 percent of the tax amnesty potential,” said an official, who asked not to be named. (ags)
