Indonesia to propose fresh tax amnesty plan, minister says

TAX AMNESTY - JAKARTA. Indonesia will propose another tax amnesty plan in upcoming talks with lawmakers about tax law revisions, Chief Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto said on Wednesday.

The government hopes the amnesty will be included in the amended legislation that regulates income tax, excise, carbon tax, an other levies in Southeast Asia's largest economy, Airlangga said.

The government also is considering changes to rules covering the value-added tax to make it more flexible, he added.

"The president has sent a letter to the House of Representative to discuss this. It is hoped that the discussion can start immediately," he told an online news briefing. He did not elaborate.

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A tax amnesty programme in 2016 resulted in around one million taxpayers declaring more than 4,800 trillion rupiah ($336.25 billion) worth of assets, though officials were disappointed with the amount of assets that were eventually repatriated of 147 trillion rupiah.

Special staff to the ministry Raden Pardede told Reuters that any discussion about a tax amnesty is still in the preliminary stages and that Finance Minister Sri Mulyani would comment further on the subject.

Sri Mulyani had previously brushed aside speculation that a second tax amnesty programme may be launched, saying instead she will work with the parliament to keep tax policy up to date .

Finance Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.