Tax authority wants to access banking data

January 13, 2017, 03.06 PM  | Reporter: Asep Munazat Zatnika, Ghina Ghaliya Quddus
Tax authority wants to access banking data


JAKARTA. Directorate General of Taxation will create special system, which will facilitate the requests for banking data. To date, tax authority cannot directly access banking data, due to the data protection as stipulated under Law on Banking.

The revision of Minister of Regulation related to the request for banking data has shifted the authority on banking data from BI (the Central Bank) to Financial Services Authority (FSA or OJK).

The new policy also gives chance to tax authority to open banking data through electronic application. The previous ministerial regulation did not specify the request’s mechanism. The request should also be submitted through manual mailing correspondence.

Therefore, Minister of Finance will create special electronic application and system to access banking data. Director of Counseling, Services, and Public Relations at Directorate General of Taxation Hestu Yoga Saksama said, to date tax authority has to submit the requests for protected data, such as banking data, to Minister of Finance.

After signed by Minister of Finance, the Minister of Finance will subsequently submit the requests to related authority. Under the new regulation, the Minister of Finance shall submit the requests to OJK (Financial Services Authority).

However, the access is still restricted to the data of taxpayers, who are under investigation related to taxation cases. “We propose to expand the access,” Hestu said.

Head of Sub-Directorate of Tax Billing with Forced Letter Dodik Samsu Hidayat said that tax authority needs the banking information. The data would be the comparison in monitoring taxpayers’ obedience.

However, Deputy of Banking Supervision at OJK Mulya Siregar said, to date the banking secrecy is necessary to attract investment. Mulya said that Indonesia had once faced complicated problems in repatriating the funds of Indonesian entrepreneurs, who left the country after the political turmoil in 1966. “The investment funds had just massively returned to the country after the issuance of Banking Law in 1992,” he said.

Mulya concerns that the banking data disclosure to other parties, including tax authority will reduce investment attractiveness.

Director of Executive Center for Indonesia Taxation Analysis (CITA) Yustinus Prastowo said that OJK will be difficult to approve the disclosure of banking data for taxation purposes, on the grounds that the government and banking sector have different interests.

However, he supports the access to banking data for tax authority so that it will facilitate the government to monitor taxpayers’ obedience.

(Muhammad Farid/Translator)

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