Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Tax reforms should continue to be implemented in connection with the Bill on Tax Amnesty, which is now under deliberation in the House of Representatives (DPR), according to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).
"I have ordered the directorate general of taxation to continue to implement tax reforms regardless of whether there will be tax amnesty and fund repatriation," President Jokowi stated while chairing a limited cabinet meeting in Jakarta on Monday.
The president also highlighted the importance of consistent enforcement of the law on taxpayers, particularly when new data was found with regard to their tax reports and the tax amnesty plan in the country.
"The law must be consistently enforced on taxpayers if new data is later found that their tax reports related to tax amnesty are not true," Jokowi affirmed.
If the Bill on Tax Amnesty is enacted into law, the government should soon prepare investment instruments to facilitate the inflow of repatriated funds.
"We want to soon prepare investment instruments. We should think of the instruments needed towards that end. We have to prepare them to deal with the possibility of inflow of large funds for portfolio or direct investment," the president stated.
Therefore, the instruments for portfolio and direct investments should be prepared.
"I hope the Bank Indonesia (BI) governor, chairman of the Financial Service Authority (OJK), and the Finance Ministry will prepare instruments for portfolio or direct investment," the president remarked.
BI, the Indonesian central bank, has forecast that the country will increase its revenue by Rp45.7 trillion if it imposes a tax amnesty, which will help in the repatriation of Rp560 trillion worth of funds that Indonesians have stashed in foreign countries.
"If the tax amnesty is followed with an improvement in the country's taxation and administrative systems, it will increase the ratio of tax to gross domestic product," BI Governor Agus Martowardojo stated on Monday.
Speaking at a working meeting with Commission XI on financial and banking affairs of the DPR, the BI governor noted that the potential revenue forecast is based on the Global Financial Integrity data for 2015.
The Global Financial Integrity 2015 data showed that funds belonging to Indonesians stashed abroad totaled Rp3,147 trillion.
Of the aforementioned amount, only some 60 percent could be pardoned based on the tax amnesty scheme.
The tax amnesty facility will not be applicable to the remaining 40 percent as the funds were accumulated through illegal means, such as corruption, narcotics trade, and human trafficking. (WDY)
