Bamsoet Asks Sri Mulyani To Cancel Food And Education Tax Plan: This Is Contrary To The 5th Precepts Of Pancasila

Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly, Bambang Soesatyo. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the MPR RI, Bambang Soesatyo, asked the government, especially the Ministry of Finance, to cancel the plan to impose VAT taxes on the basic food and education sectors, as stated in the revision of Law Number 6 of 1983 concerning General Provisions and Tax Procedures (KUP).

He considered that the policy plan was contrary to the 5th principle of Pancasila, namely Social Justice for All Indonesians, and the basic food-education sector was also closely related to the ups and downs of inflation.

"The imposition of the VAT tax will automatically make the prices of basic necessities and education rise sharply. In the end, it will increase Indonesia's inflation," said Bambang Soesatyo or Bamsoet in a statement in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Monday, June 14.

He gave an example, on average per year, the condition of the price of rice alone can contribute to inflation reaching 0.13 percent so it is impossible to imagine what would happen if basic necessities, especially rice, would be subject to VAT.

According to him, when the quality of education in various state educational institutions is still low, the government should be grateful to NU, Muhammadiyah, and various other community organizations that have helped educate the nation's life by preparing quality educational institutions for the community.

Because of this, he considered that the imposition of VAT on education is the same as negating the role of NU, Muhammadiyah, and various community organizations that have a "concern" on education.

"In making policies, the Ministry of Finance should not only be good at processing numbers. But it should also be good at processing taste. There must be sensitivity to the condition of the people," he said.

The Golkar Party politician believes that the Ministry of Finance must realize that there are still many ways to increase state revenue without burdening the people, especially maximizing the existing potential.

According to him, this is because, until the end of April 2021, tax revenues have only reached Rp374.9 trillion or around 30.94 percent of the total target of Rp1,229.6 trillion.

"This means that there are still many opportunities that can be worked on, by maximizing the potential of existing taxes. Before burdening the people, the Ministry of Finance must first bring order to its staff so that they can catch tax evaders whose potential reaches hundreds of trillions per year," he said.

Previously, the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani emphasized that the current government was still focused on restoring the economy so that she deeply regretted the uproar in the community regarding the issue of staple food being subject to VAT.

"The government actually uses the State Budget instrument because our goal is economic recovery from the 'demand side' and 'supply side'," Sri Mulyani said at the Commission XI Working Meeting (Raker) of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) in Jakarta, Thursday, June 10.

He explained that the draft KUP Bill had just been sent to the DPR but had not yet been discussed, so it was very regrettable that there was a commotion about the issue of imposing VAT for basic necessities.

Moreover, according to him, the draft of the KUP Bill was leaked and it was released to the public with aspects that were cut off and not in full, causing a "clumsy" condition.