This proposal came after the government, in this case the Finance Minister, issued a regulation requiring reports on credit card transaction data. This is part of the governments efforts to track down taxpayers and increase tax revenues.
Failing to meet its tax target last year, the government is determined to go all out to collect taxes it has set this year at Rp1,360 trillion. Last year, it failed to meet the target set in the state budget at Rp1,294 trillion. It only collected Rp1,060 trillion, or about 81.9 percent of the target.
"It has been hard to trace taxpayers so far. Many of them with separate NPWP and KTP cards have different addresses so tax officials face difficulties tracing them," legislator Hery Gunawan, a member of Commission XI on Financial Affairs of the House of Representatives (DPR), said in Sukabumi, West Java, on Thursday.
He said the House has been deliberating a proposal at the Commission level and hopefully, in the near future it will be submitted to the government. The inclusion of the NPWP in the identity card (KTP) of the taxpayers is expected to boost state income from the tax sector.
Hery said the inclusion of NPWPs in their identity cards will minimize the number of taxpayers who do not abide by their annual obligation to pay taxes.
He also expressed hope that the NPWPs inclusion in identity cards would first be launched as a pilot project in Sukabumi, West Java. So far, tax officials have faced difficulties in detecting taxpayers so that the annual tax receipt target is not met.
Hery, who is a politician from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), expressed pessimism for the countrys tax target this year, predicting that the government might only be able to collect about 80 percent of its tax target.
Therefore, all citizens who want to make identity cards (KTP) should own NPWP as this would boost the tax generated income of the state every year, the legislator said.
"The peoples awareness about paying taxes is still very low. In Sukabumi for instance, the level of obedience is the lowest in West Java," the lawmaker remarked.
Therefore, efforts to collect taxes must be increased, including applying methods that could allow tax officials to hunt taxpayers, such as including their NPWPs in their identity cards and obliging credit cards operators to report data on credit card transactions.
The government considers it important to collect data on credit card transactions for analyzing taxpayers annual income.
In this case regulations are required to access taxpayers credit card transactions data, particularly of individual tax payers (WP OP), without violating banking laws, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said.
"We need the data for WP OP profiles because we cannot access their bank accounts as the banking law prohibits it. Therefore, we want access to their credit card transactions in order to check their tax profiles," said Bambang in Jakarta on Friday.
The Finance Ministry has issued a regulation, which requires 22 banks and credit issuer institutions to report credit card data and transactions to the Directorate General of Taxations.
The matter was regulated vide the Finance Ministers Decree No. 39/PMP.03/2016 on the Type of Data and Information, as well as the Report Procedure of Data and Information which concerns taxation. It came into effect on March 22.
Bank Indonesia (BI) Deputy Governor, Ronald Waas enforcing regulations to access credit card transactions will not be problematic since the law on banks does not regulate whether or not access to this information is allowed.
"We can look at the banks confidentiality regulations to see if the credit card details or information about savings has to be kept confidential. But all laws, which regulate the confidentiality of data allow access to the same if it concerns national interest, but with the approval of the Financial Service Authority (OJK)," Ronald remarked.
According to Minister Bambang, if a taxpayer reported a monthly income of Rp5 million, but his/her expenditure through credit cards reached Rp20 million per month, tax officials would know that he or she has made an incorrect annual tax report (SPT).
"This means that while he/she has claimed to have a monthly income of Rp5 million through the SPT, but his/her tax liability should be corrected. We will compare his or her transactions made though credit cards with his or her annual tax report and see if these match," the minister said.
Bambang said the plan to implement a regulation to access credit card transaction reports was discussed long back with OJK, which will popularize it among banks and credit card issuers. (*)
Reporter: Andi Abdussalam
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
