Official: No day without taking tax evader hostage

JAKARTA. Director General of Taxation Ken Dwijugiasteadi stressed that his office would intensify legal enforcement through gijzeling (hostage-taking) against tax evaders to achieve the government's tax revenue target.

“I have issued an order to 341 tax offices that there should be no day without gijzeling,” said Ken in his Jakarta office over the weekend, as reported by tribunnews.com.

Previously, Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution announced that in the draft revision of the state budget, the government had cut its tax revenue target by about Rp 50 trillion to Rp 1.45 quadrillion (US$108.35 billion) this year, but Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati only approved of a Rp 30 trillion cut.

Ken stressed that the target could only be achieved through tough legal enforcement against tax evaders and therefore, the tax office would continue to use gijzeling against recalcitrant taxpayers.

However, he stressed that any law enforcement measures should always be carried out using the correct procedure. “We will not investigate taxpayers who have submitted concrete data,” he added.

Meanwhile, investigation and tax collection director Angin Prayitno Aji said his office would not investigate the documents of taxpayers who had taken part in the tax amnesty, but an investigation would be conducted if there was wealth that was undeclared in their 2017 tax report.

Angin said that through law enforcement measures, his office had collected Rp 28 trillion of the Rp 59 trillion in tax money targeted by the Directorate General of Taxation. (bbn)