President Jokowi Appreciates Tax Officers Working on Tax Amnesty Program

President Jokowi responds to reporters’ questions after Dissemination of Final Phase of Tax Amnesty Program on Tuesday (28/2), at the JI Expo, Kemayoran, Jakarta

Tax anmesty program has been conducting for 8 months since March 2016, and it now enters its final phase. President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo admitted that he realizes that tax officers particularly those working at the Directorate General of Tax have been working 24 hours a day. “It is true that Directorate General of Tax opens 24 hours. We ordered them to do so,” President Jokowi said in a remarks during Dissemination of the Final Phase of Tax Amnesty Program on Tuesday (28/2), at Hall B3 and C3 of the Jakarta Internasional Expo (JI-EXPO) Kemayoran, Jakarta.

Therefore, the President on that occasion expressed his highest appreciation and gratitude to Directorate General of Tax and its officials. The President also thanked ministries/institutions, law enforcers, as well as regional governments for their cooperation, and business associations for their backups to the Government by inviting all business doers (to join the program), as well as to attend this event.

“For that reason, I would like to express my gratitude to the Chairman of Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo) along with its officials, and also to other associations such as the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (Hipmi), banks, finance industries, tax consultants, and many other associations which supported the tax amnesty program,” President Jokowi said adding that redemption money from the program was Rp112 trillion on 27 February 2017.

According to the President, there are no countries which always involve the President for tax amnesty program. “You may check it, how often I mentioned tax amnesty during my visit in Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Bandung, Makassar, Balikpapan, Medan, Bali. Why I did that? To ensure that this program will bring benefits to the country, not in the short time but in the future,” the President added.

President Jokowi believes that the declared assets totaling Rp4,413 trillion from the tax amnesty program is a huge amount. Moreover, 707 thousands taxpayers have also submitted Asset Statement Letters (SPH) to tax offices, and the number will continue to increase.

Thus, the President hopes the current cooperations will be maintained continuously because a country is like an enterprise, a corporation, or an institution. Once trust is broken, it will be hard for them. On the contrary, when there is trust, capital inflows and investment will enter the country, and people will not be afraid to do business. “That is what we are doing now, building trust. Building trust is something invisible but invaluable,” the President said.

Era of  Openness

On that occasion, President Jokowi reminded all that Indonesia is about to enter the era of  investment openness in which Automatic Exchange of Information will apply. “Please be careful, Automatic Exchange of Information will apply in June 2018. Considering that issuing a law will take time, I will issue a Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) on the information openness which will come into force in June 2018,” the President stated.

It means, President Jokowi added, from June 2018 onwards the people cannot hide their assets both in the country and abroad. People cannot avoid tax anymore. “All countries have signed it. If I don’t issue the Perppu, we will be excommunicated by other countries. Indonesia will be regarded as a country without credibility. I do not want it to happen. I want the world to trust Indonesia because we build the trust globally,” the President firmly said.

Therefore, President Jokowi reminded the people to participate in tax amnesty program because there is only one month left. “I only have one suggestion for you, please join the tax amnesty program,” the President said.

President added that all data is open to public. So, those who want comfortable and quiet life, should immediately join the tax amnesty program.

Also attending the event were Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Minister of National Development Planning (PPN)/Head of National Development Planning Agency Bambang Brodjonegoro, Minister of State-owned Enterprises Rini Soemarno, Head of Financial Services Authority (OJK) Muliaman Hadad, Indonesian National Defense Forces Commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, and Attorney General Prasetyo. (FID/RAH/ES) (RA/ MMB/ YM/Naster)