"In terms of revenue, taxes will certainly be the main source of our income and they will play a larger role. Our target for next years tax revenue has been set at Rp1,400 trillion. This is certainly not an easy task. To meet the target, we must focus on tax collection and tax administration," he stated at the Kompas 100 CEO Forum here on Friday.
He noted that the growth potential of the countrys economy was still very large compared to that of many other developing countries although the growth in the third quarter had slowed down to 5.01 percent.
He observed that despite the growth potential, the tax ratio against the Gross Domestic Product was still moving at 11 to 12 percent.
"This means there is something wrong in our tax collection. In view of that, we will improve tax compliance, including personal and corporate income taxes," he pointed out.
With regard to personal income tax, the minister revealed his office would conduct further expansion, as there were many personal tax payers who were not paying enough taxes according to their wealth.
Regarding value-added tax, he noted the government would shift to electronic billing from the existing manual system to minimize fraud.
He emphasized that the finance ministry would also coordinate with the police and the Attorney General Office for better law enforcement, as it feared that customs and excise as well as tax officers might be ineffective in carrying out their duties.
"Tax and customs and excise officers are also law enforcers. The difference is that police and prosecutors deal with general crimes while tax and customs and excise officers deal with crimes relating to state finance such as smuggling or tax manipulation," he observed.
According to Bambang, tax officers as well as customs and excise officers would not take any risk to enforce the law for fear of being criminalized by other law enforcing bodies.
"This is what we are going to correct. There must be mutual understanding and cooperation between law enforcers. Starting 2015, we will be more serious in collecting taxes by improving tax compliance," he said.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
