Govt Relaxes tax amnesty regulations

JAKARTA. President Joko Widodo finally approved businessmen’s request to relax tax amnesty regulations. Now, taxpayer is allowed to join tax amnesty only by submitting Asset Declaration Letter (SPH) without enclosing other requirements at the same time. President Joko Widodo issued the policy during a meeting with businessmen on Thursday (22/9) night.

Under the policy, taxpayers, including businessmen, still have opportunities to join tax amnesty at the first period, which offers the lowest redemption fees, with  uncomplete documents.

According to Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, the policy will take into effect until December 2016. “I will issue Minister of Finance Regulation on this policy”, Sri added. According to Minister of Finance, the new policy does not break the Law No11/2016 on Tax Amnesty, on the grounds that the law does not specify technical matters on declaring asset.

Sri Mulyani promised to ease procedures for joining tax amnesty in accordance with existing Law on Tax Amnesty. Previously, government was asked to revise the law to relax tax amnesty regulations.

One of the businessmen that attended the meeting with President Joko Widodo Rosan P Roeslani said that the policy is very helpful for businessmen, since they were struggling to complete the administrative requirements in a short time.

However, Rosan, who is also Chairman of Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, expected government to extend the first period of tax amnesty through a government regulation in lieu of law (Perpu).

Aside of Rosan, the  meeting was also attended by other businessmen, such as Aburizal Bakrie, Arifin Panigoro, Fransiscus Welirang, Erwin Aksa, and Surya Paloh. The owner of Medco Group Arifin Panigoro confirmed his commitment to join the program and to declare his assets in immediate time.

(Muhammad Farid/Translator)