House commission approves AEOI regulation

JAKARTA. Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) No. 1/2017 on financial information access for taxation purposes is ready to be endorsed after House of Representatives Commission XI on financial affairs finished deliberating it Monday.

The Perppu is a legal basis for the government to take part in the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) initiated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Nine of the 10 factions on Commission XI approved the regulation, while the Gerindra Party demanded that a new law be created.

Most of the factions gave notes regarding the limit on the balance of bank accounts that can be accessed by tax officials. Currently, the Directorate General of Taxation has set the limit at Rp 2 billion (US$150,116).

The Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the National Mandate Party PAN for example, demanded the government increase the limit to Rp 3.3 billion, similar to the limit in other countries.

Meanwhile, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) underlined the importance of tougher punishment for tax officials who wrongly disclosed a person's financial details. According to the regulation, punishment for those who leak information is one year in jail, while the punishment for those leaking details of tax amnesty participants is five years.

In response, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said the government would propose the OECD standards of confidentiality, while punishment and the bank account balance limit would be discussed in future meetings. (Anton Hermansyah)