"In the meeting a while ago, Bamus decided to wait until we have consultation with the government," Fadli said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Fadli Zon said a meeting on Wednesday of the House Consultative Body (Bamus) ended with a decision to put off debate on the tax amnesty bill proposed by the government.

"In the meeting a while ago, Bamus decided to wait until we have consultation with the government," Fadli said after the meeting.

He said no followup step could be taken on the tax amnesty bill before the consultation is concluded.

He said the House wanted to know the road map of the government related to tax amnesty especially with the unveiling of the Panama Paper" document.

He referred to millions of documents of a law firm Mossack Fonseca of Panama on financial scandals leaked to the public.

The scandals involved 140 politicians including 12 state leaders, celebrities and sport starts.

A number of Indonesian business leaders and retired officials are mentioned in the documents.

"We want to know the estimated total of funds that would flow to the country if the tax amnesty bill was passed into law," Fadli, from the Gerindra party faction, said.

The House also wanted to know the reason why the bill becomes a priority, he added.

"We dont want that the bill instead of a solution would become a source of problem in the future," he said.

He said the academic text of the bill is not clear and could not yet give answer to questions .

"There are a number of factions that rejected the bill. Gerindra is one among those that chose the postponement as it wants to know the objective of the bill," he said.

Deputy chairman of the Nasdem faction Jhonny G Plate said the House wants consultation with the president before making decision on the proposed bill.

The Bamus decision is made through deliberation without voting , Jhonny said.

He said if the factions agreed parliamentary debate could be held and a decision could be made in the session period.

Only Tuesday, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said parliamentary debate on the tax amnesty bill would start in the next session of the legislative body.

"God willing, we and the Parliament would discuss the bill. It would serve as an entry for the tax payers that they would be willing to bring their funds parked abroad to Indonesia," Bambang said .

He said passing the tax amnesty bill into law is a priority in the government program as it is potential in increasing tax revenues .

Big shortfall in tax revenues last year and in the first quarter of this year has prompted the tax amnesty policy.

Bambang said tax revenues in the first quarter of this year totaled Rp177 trillion or Rp4 trillion lower than in the same period last year.

He said tax revenues in the first quarter of 2016 was only 13 percent of the annual target of Rp1,360 trillion.

He attributed the shortfall partly to a decline in value added tax revenue.

The minister, however, said he was optimistic that the tax revenues would grow faster in the rest of the year that total revenue in the whole of 2016 would exceed revenues in 2015.

He said with the tax amnesty, tax payers who have not reported their assets abroad would be encouraged to comply with their obligation to submit reports to the taxation authorities.

He said he hoped tax payers would use the opportunity to meet their obligation without facing legal action.

Failure to utilize the opportunity would risk facing crack down by the government on delinquent tax payers, he said.

He said the government would prepare data of the assets of tax payers that tax amnesty or law enforcement could be effectively implemented.

Taxes account for 70 percent of the countrys state income.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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