Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati has encouraged wealthy corporations and individuals to keep their wealth in Indonesia as their valuable contribution to the nation.

“If you have an excess of funds, please don’t just put them abroad. Invest them in Indonesia and we will give you incentives,” Sri Mulyani said in Jakarta on Tuesday during an award ceremony for the country’s biggest taxpayers in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The incentives for those wealthy citizens who want to keep their money in Indonesia will be included in a regulation being prepared by the Finance Ministry, she added.

During the event, the minister also expressed gratitude to the biggest taxpayers’ awardees for their great contribution to state revenue.

In 2017, the large tax offices (LTO) regional representatives, designed for taxpayers with the large contributions, recorded Rp 361.84 trillion (US$26.34 billion) in tax revenue, or 27 percent of the total tax revenue.

This year, the tax office targets Rp 432.37 trillion in tax revenue collected by the LTOs, or 30.33 percent of Rp 1.42 quadrillion total tax revenue.

On Tuesday, the LTO regional headquarters delivered awards to 31 corporation and individual taxpayers who had paid the largest amounts of tax money.

Among the awardees are Arifin Panigoro, Anthoni Salim, Chairul Tanjung, Erick Thohir, Edwin Soeryadjaya, James Tjahaja Riady, Raden Eddy Kusnadi Sariaatmadja and Sofjan Wanandi.

Sri Mulyani said the event was the government's way of communicating with businesses to encourage them to become obedient taxpayers. (ami/bbn)