TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati responded to public questions regarding the government's plan to impose a Value-Added Tax or VAT on basic commodities or staple food. She said that the government is still focusing on economic recovery.

Sri explained that all instruments of the State Budget (APBN) are designed for economic recovery from the supply and demand sides. In fact, she has mapped business actors who are hit hard by and benefited from the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as which sectors that are slow and quick to revive from the impacts of the pandemic.

“Our focus is on the economic recovery. The state budget is provided for people to survive, for example, to pay Covid treatment, vaccines, self-isolation, MSMEs, children’s education, the internet, and all kinds of things. We have also relaxed taxes,” said the minister in a work meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission of Finance on Thursday, June 10.

Sri said the value-added tax will be contained in the revision draft of Law No. 6 of 1983 on general taxation procedures (KUP) that has not been discussed in the DPR plenary meeting to date. Thus, she opined that in terms of political ethics, she could not yet talk of the issue.

According to Sri, this situation caused the government in a position to not speak about the overall tax architecture that has been planned. Since it has not been explained completely, only fragments of information were disclosed. “And then it is blown up as if it is something that is not thoughtfully considered during the current situation,” Sri Mulyani said.

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CAESAR AKBAR