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Apindo calls for more tax officers to serve tax amnesty participants
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Vice President Jusuf Kalla (second left) talks to Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani (left), as then finance minister Bambang Brodjonegoro (center), Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) chairman Rosan P. Roeslani (right) and Kalla’s expert staffer Sofjan Wanandi look on, after a tax amnesty event in Jakarta on July 21. (Antara Foto/Rosa Panggabean)
T
he Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), a powerful business lobby group, has urged the government to increase the number of tax officers available amid increasing interest from people nationwide in participating in the tax amnesty program.
“More tax officials would be helpful to make the tax amnesty program successful,” Apindo chairman Haryadi Sukamdani said in a discussion in Jakarta on Saturday, adding that more businesspeople had indicated their interest in joining the program recently.
Indonesia’s tax system is experiencing a lack of manpower, which has held back its efforts to collect tax revenue. One tax official serves 7,500 taxpayers in the country, far higher than in Australia and Germany where one official serves 1,000 and 700 taxpayers, respectively.
Gerindra Party politician Kardaya Warnika of House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing finance and banking said the failure to collect tax revenue had led the government to launch the tax amnesty as a strategy to raise more state budget revenue to finance infrastructure projects.
“The tax amnesty is expected to provide Rp 165 trillion [US$12 billion] this year,” he said.
The government estimates that some Rp 4 quadrillion worth of undeclared assets will be reported in the program, which will run for another seven months. Of the figure, some Rp 1 quadrillion is believed to be stashed overseas.
Launched in late June, around 2 percent of the targeted Rp 4 quadrillion in unreported assets had been declared by last week. Of the Rp 1 quadrillion target for repatriated funds, only 0.76 percent had been realized. (rez/ags)
