Tax Revenue Rises 5.7 percent; Sri Mulyani: Strong Momentum

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati expressed her optimism about the growth of the state's tax revenue since early this year until May 2019. As of May 2019, tax revenue growth rate was recorded at 6.2 percent, which is better than the rate recorded in April 2019.

"The 5.7 percent growth of tax revenue in May 2019 is better than the growth recorded in April 2019 at 4.7 percent. So there is a strong momentum," said the minister on the sideline of the June 2019 APBN Kita release event at the Finance Ministry building on Friday, June 21, 2019.

Meanwhile, non-tax state revenue was recorded at 8.6 percent, better compared to the 14.8 percent slowdown recorded in April 2019. As for the state expenditures, budget absorption rate was increasing to 9.8 percent, higher compared to last year's 7.9 percent in the same period. This achievement was also better than the growth recorded in April 2019 at 8.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the state budget (APBN) deficit of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was recorded at 0.79 percent and that the primary balance saw IDR 0.4 trillion negatives. "The state debt is still in the safe level under 30 percent, or 29.72 percent of the GDP," Sri added. Therefore, Sri Mulyani hoped that the national economy in the last two quarters could be maintained and even improved.

The former managing director of World Bank asserted that the economic activity of the country was relatively good in general. This condition can be seen from Indonesia's 51.6 PMI ranking in May 2019 compared to last year's 50.4 ranking. Consumer confidence rate (IKK) recorded in May 2019 also increase to a level of 128.2, compared to the 128.1 recorded last year.

Sri Mulyani explained that the improvements were supported by the prediction on the increase of Indonesia's Business Tendency Index in the second quarter of 2019, which reflects the increasing optimism among businesses.

BISNIS