The ceremony was preceded with the 600 BUMN directors and commissioners singing the national anthem Indonesia Raya in the building of the state-owned energy company PT Pertamina.
In her welcoming speech Sri Mulyani stressed the importance of taxes for the national development.
"With every Rp1 trillion in tax fund we could build 3.5 kilometers of bridges or 155 kilometers of roads, or 11,900 houses for soldiers, or provide 729 tons of rice for the poor, or 306,000 tons of fertilizers or provide direct aid for 355,000 poor families, etc." she said.
She also said that every Rp1 trillion of tax fund were enough to build 6,765 class rooms of elementary school or build 5,511 class rooms of secondary high school or 4,182 class rooms of senior high school, or to build 50 hospitals, or 2,108 health centers , etc.
The finance minister as a shareholder of BUMNs said that BUMNs should be able to increase their contributions to the state tax income to help the government to carry out its economic development program.
She said BUMN directors and commissioners and leaders of their subsidiaries should be more open to take part in tax amnesty program.
She said tax obedience of Indonesians is still relatively low citing in 2016, out of 32,769,215 registered tax payers only 12,559,284 paid tax.
She said out of 701 BUMN tax payers including their subsidiaries only 28 BUMNs have taken part in the Tax Amnesty program with redemption of Rp13.01 billion or Rp464.75 million on the average.
Among 1,543 BUMN directors only 20 percent have taken part in the tax amnesty program with redemption of Rp44.5 billion and among 1,387 BUMN commissioners only 24 percent have taken part in the tax amnesty program with redemption of Rp111.2 billion.
Sri Mulyani called on the BUMN leaders including as individuals to take part in the tax amnesty program to help build up the nation.
She repeated quoting a text from the national anthem ," Bangunlah Jiwanya Bangunlah Badannya Untuk Indonesia Raya" (wake up the spirit, wake up the physic for Great Indonesia).
"I believe we all, you and me are together struggling to build up the nation toward a just and prosperous people. I am confident BUMNs are very close to the people , therefore they should know very well how to improve the welfare of the people," she added.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
