AGO Searches Customs And DGT, IAW: This Is The Peak Of The Iceberg Corruption Tax

Illustration of corruption (ANTARA)

JAKARTA Secretary of Founder of Indonesian Audit Watch (IAW), Iskandar Sitorus, appreciates the steps taken by the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to search the Customs office as well as the house of officials of the Directorate General of Taxes (DJP), both active and retired.

He considered that the legal action was not sudden, but part of a long series of processes that had been observed by IAW for the last five years.

"This is not an impromptu action or just a coordination of pleasantries. This is a long series of patterns that have been observed by Indonesian Audit Watch for the past five years," said Iskandar, Wednesday, November 19.

According to IAW, at least 40 corporate entities have entered the law enforcement radar regarding alleged tax, customs, and excise violations. These companies come from various sectors, ranging from the food and beverage industry, banking to airlines, and some of them have been summoned by the AGO.

IAW also mentioned that there are five major tax cases that have stalled in the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and its development has never been published. This condition, according to Iskandar, shows that the tax structural problem has been going on for a long time.

"This means that what we see these days is only the tip of the iceberg, from structural issues that have been warned by BPK through LHP in the last 10 years," he said.

Iskandar explained that the commemoration of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) over the past decade was related to fiscal corrections, tax restitutions that were procedurally flawed, weak transfer pricing supervision, as well as tax amnesty loopholes that were misused, including potential state losses in the customs and excise sector that were repeated.

All the findings piled up, then exploded into a series of searches that we saw today. The AGO seems to be running Chapter II, which is cleaning up the core of state financial damage," he said.

IAW considers that the search step that shifted from Customs to DGT is a consistent pattern of handling. The AGO is considered to be fixing the most vulnerable points for corruption in the state revenue system.

Iskandar also assessed that the AGO's actions over the past five years have shown the ability to uncover large cases. He gave an example of handling the Jiwasraya case, ASABRI, BTS Kominfo, and tin cases whose losses were considered to reach hundreds of trillions of rupiah.

"The AGO has proven that it is capable of handling systemic corruption cases with the value of jumbo state losses that were previously untouched," he said.

Iskandar explained that the tax sector was targeted because the potential for state losses was considered too large. According to the IAW audit, tax system losses can come from corporate tax manipulation, aggressive transfer pricing, export-import undervalues, fictitious restitution, misleading tax planning, to the use of tax amnesty facilities to wash old obligations.

Although BPK has provided many recommendations in the last 10 years, Iskandar assesses that law enforcement is completely incomplete.

The steps taken by the AGO today, namely to search the homes of DGT officials, must be supported. This is a signal that the era of taxless and Customs and Excise began to collapse during President Prabowo Subianto's time," he said.

IAW assesses that if this momentum is maximized to dismantle tax evasion, export-import manipulation, transfer pricing to tax amnesty abuse, the state can recover large losses without increasing tax rates.

Eradication of corruption must be based on data. Don't be picky. Come on, target structural damage, not just small individuals," said Iskandar.

IAW emphasized that the series of searches that occurred were not a single incident, but a new phase of national tax reform.

"Reformation, which for 20 years has only been a slogan, has now finally touched the net," concluded Iskandar.