"1 percent of the population has 50 percent of the wealth of all Indonesian people. If they all pay taxes correctly, it would certainly be very useful for the country," she said in her speech on "Tax Amnesty Update" at Indonesia University.
Sri explained that the spirit behind the current Tax Amnesty program is building public confidence and therefore taxpayers must be given good service and easiness in following the program's directives.
She added that the tax ratio of the country, which is a middle-income country, is still below 11 percent and reflects the weakness of the organizations and their delay in paying taxes.
The corruption case of tax officer Gayus Tambunan was also cited by the minister, who said it has hurt those who have worked well. "So, the more you are angry, the more they are hurt," she said.
In view of this, Sri asked the audience to inform her if they knew any tax officer, who has violated the rules so that she could take an action against him/her, adding that her office would be ready to help if people have difficulties.
In an effort to improve public perception of tax amnesty, which has been considered as also targeting low-income people, the tax Director General had recently issued regulation Number 11/PJ/2016 to assure people, including pensioners, that they are not required to participate in the tax amnesty program.
Based on the regulation, people with an income of below Rp4.5 million per month, such as laborers, fishermen, farmers and pensioners, are not obligated to participate in the tax amnesty program.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
