TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Ministry Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that the MoU signing on data beneficial ownership could help Tax Directorate General in calculating tax.

“With this agreement, we will get regular information on who is the ultimate beneficial ownership because thus far, we face difficulties in calculating the tax due to transfer practices for tax avoidance and evasion,” said the Minister in Sultan Hotel, South Jakarta, Wednesday, July 3.

Earlier, the Ministry of Legal and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) hosted an MoU signing event in light of regulation on corporate beneficial ownership. Five ministries had inked the deal, namely Kemenkumham, Finance Ministry, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Agriculture Ministry, Cooperation and SMEs Ministry, as well as the National Development Planning Ministry or Bappenas.

The deal signing was done by Kemenkumham following the issuance of Presidential Decree No. 13/2018 on beneficial ownership to prevent and eradicate money laundering and terrorism funding.

Minister Sri, who used to be managing director of the World Bank, explained the deal would complete Tax DG data on Automatic Data Exchange and Information (AEoI) and expected it would improve the corporation management to be more transparent.

Public or private institutions including corporations, she went on, shared the same commitment on transparency and accountability. “If all stakeholders make a commitment, it’ll be great for tax collection so tax money can be used for development,” she noted.

However, Sri Mulyani stopped short of detailing potential tax to be collected after AEoI was consolidated as she needed to carefully review and calculate it.

DIAS PRASONGKO