House pushes for tax amnesty completion in May

JAKARTA. House of Representatives Speaker Ade Komarudin has said he aims to finish the discussion of the tax amnesty draft bill during the recess period so that it can be passed into law when the House resumes its sitting in May.

The Golkar Party politician said he initially hoped the bill could be passed into law during the current sitting, which ends on Friday. However, if House Commission XI, which oversees banking and finance, was not able to meet that target, it could use the time it had during the recess to deliberate the bill, he said.

“We still have time to discuss the bill during the two-week recess period. So, the work meeting between the House and the government [to discuss the passing of the bill into law] hopefully can be held at the opening of the upcoming sitting," Ade told reporters at the House complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Monday.

The draft bill was not overly long, however, it would not be easy to deliberate, Ade claimed. The draft bill had at least three crucial points, the House speaker said without elaborating further. "I don't want the tax amnesty discussion hampering the discussion of the revised state budget [APBN-P],” Ade said.

Ade's optimism  was in contrast to fellow Golkar politician, Ahmadi Noor Supit, who chairs Commission XI.

"The bill cannot be completed during the current sitting. It can be completed in the next session," Ahmadi said separately. He further said that if House lawmakers aimed to finish it during the recess, it would be better to complete the draft law discussion before the submission of the APBN-P bill.

Ahmadi said that despite its tough discussion process, which led to many deliberation postponements, it was important to pass the tax amnesty bill into law before the compliance by government branches with financial accountability rules was required.

The idea of deliberating the bill during the recess itself was not welcomed by a number of lawmakers.

Andreas Eddy Susetyo, a Commission XI lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle ( PDI-P ), was certain the deliberation of the tax amnesty draft bill would not be finished during the current sitting. Its deliberation would have to be continued after the recess.

"We should take a look at the purposes of the recess. In this period, lawmakers should explore the aspirations of their constituents during that time. If we don't do that, it means we violate the Legislative Institutions [MD3] Law," Andreas said on Monday.

The PDI-P lawmaker further said his party faction was still studying input provided by experts, after which they would discuss a problem inventory list [DIM].

In the tax amnesty bill, the government will offer tax discounts to individuals and companies who declare their untaxed wealth.

Separately, the government plans to revise the state budget to a more realistic figure, including its tax revenue target. For the 2016 state budget, the total tax revenue target is currently set at Rp 1.36 quadrillion ( US$102.64 billion ), or 28.2 percent higher than the Rp 1.06 quadrillion achieved in 2015. (Erika Anindita Dewi)