TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Sri Mulyani Indrawati has been named as Finance Minister of the Year 2019 Global and Asia Pacific by The Banker, a magazine affiliated with the Financial Times.

The Banker takes a number of factors into considerations before awarding Minister Sri with the recognition. The first factor was the resilience of the country's economy amidst various disasters and tragedies throughout 2018. Despite all the disasters that iht Indonesia, the 2018 Gross Domestic Product deficit is estimated to be at around 1.86 percent, lower than estimated in the 2018 State Budget, which is 2.19 percent.

The second factor was the modernization of the country's response to natural disasters through risk financing strategies and guarantee/insurance, to accelerate the post-disaster relief and recovery process.

The third factor was a series of changes to the taxation system to increase state revenues, such as simplifying the process of paying taxes and adding locations for paying taxes. The tax simplification was done because the Global Competitiveness Report for 2017 placed Indonesia in number 41 out of 138 countries.

Another factor was the reduction of Income Tax rates for small and medium enterprises followed by the enforcement of e-commerce tax on e-commerce companies operating from abroad.

Furthermore, Sri reduced the value added tax imposed on Indonesia's export services to 0 (zero) percent to stimulate the sector.

BISNIS.COM