TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-Ken Dwijugiasteadi, the Finance Ministry's Tax Director, hopes the House of Representatives (DPR) can immediately pass the tax amnesty bill. The implementation of this tax pardon law is expected to raise the state income from tax revenues.
"We support the tax amnesty by exercising active collections. If people join the tax amnesty, all arrears must be paid," he said in Jakarta last weekend.
Meanwhile, University of Indonesia economist Lana Soelistiyaningsih reminds the government not to fully count on tax amnesty practices to boost state income this year.
Lana predicted that the tax amnesty bill discussion will be extended until July, thus the implementation will be postponed until late this year.
"Besides, there is no guarantee that people would make use of that law," she said.
The Finance Ministry's Tax Directorate General announced that the state tax revenue had reached Rp364.1 trillion as of May 2016. The amount is 26.8 percent of this year's Rp1,360.2-trillion target as set in the 2016 state budget
DESTRIANITA KUSUMASTUTI | ANGELINA ANJAR SAWITRI | PUTRI ADITYOWATI