Indonesia Invites G20 Countries And Partners In Asia To Increase Tax Transparency

JAKARTA – Indonesia chaired the first Asia Initiative meeting as part of a series of activities for the G20 Presidency in Jakarta. This first meeting took the theme “Sustaining the Recovery through Enhanced Tax Transparency” and was conducted on a hybrid basis.

Acting as Chair is the Director General of Taxes, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia Suryo Utomo. In his statement, Suryo conveyed the importance of international cooperation in the field of tax transparency (tax transparency) and Exchange of Information (EOI).

"This step is expected to accelerate the mobilization of domestic income during the economic recovery period due to the COVID-19 pandemic," he said as quoted on Thursday, February 17.

According to Suryo, collaboration is needed to optimize the potential for revenue, which is sometimes outside the jurisdiction of the country of origin.

"We also invite countries in Asia to join the Asia Initiative and benefit from cooperation in the field of tax transparency and EOI," he said.

In addition to the tax authority leaders from the 5 Asian G20 member countries, this meeting was also attended by representatives from the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum).

Then, there were also leaders of tax authorities from 13 Asian countries that are members of the Global Forum, and several international institutions such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank and the Study Group on Asian Tax Administration and Research (SGATAR).

Meanwhile, the launch of the Asia Initiative activity was carried out at the Plenary Meeting of the Global Forum on November 17, 2021, where the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia Sri Mulyani Indrawati and ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa provided support for the establishment of this Asia Initiative.