Chairman Of The House Of Representatives Banggar Said Abdullah Appreciates The Government's Performance On The Achievement Of State Revenue Of IDR 1,699 Trillion As Of November 2021

Chairman of the House of Representatives' Budget Agency (Banggar), Said Abdullah. (Photo: Special)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Budget Agency (Banggar) of the DPR RI, Said Abdullah, appreciates the government's performance in achieving state revenues which continue to increase in the midst of uncertain global economic conditions as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in a number of countries is still high.

Until November 2021 or less than a month after closing the book, state revenues had reached Rp1,699.4 trillion or 97.5 percent of the state revenue target in the 2021 State Budget of Rp1,743.6 trillion.

"The House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia continues to provide support to the government, especially to the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) who disciplinesly oversees and manages our APBN," said Said in Jakarta, Wednesday, December 22.

According to Said, discipline is needed so that the state budget does not get off track, so that the fiscal remains under control and prudent.

"However, I still hope that there will be a policy transformation that will continue to be carried out in the future. Because there are still fundamental weaknesses in our state revenue posture," he explained.

The chairman of the PDI-P DPP explained that the main support for state revenue from January to November 2021 was the increase in world commodity prices which had been the focus of exports so far.

For example, oil and gas PPh which rose by 57.7 percent from last year, including its contribution to VAT which also rose 19.8 percent on an annual basis. As a result, the realization of tax revenue is better than last year.

Until November 2021, the realization of tax revenues reached Rp. 1,082.6 trillion, or grew 17 percent from last November 2020. He explained that rising commodity prices also contributed positively to Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP).

Until November 2021, the realization of PNBP reached IDR 382.5 trillion or 128.3 percent of the 2021 APBN target.

"This PNBP contribution was obtained from rising oil and gas prices, coal, and palm oil, and minerals," he explained.

Another sector that has always been a supporter of state revenue is customs and excise revenues. The target of customs and excise revenues in the 2021 State Budget is IDR 214.96 trillion.

Until November 2021, the realization of customs and excise revenues reached Rp. 232.25 trillion, up 26.58 percent from November last year.

"The increase on the customs side is due to the rise of export and import activities, especially commodity exports, and the excise sector for the tobacco product industry," he explained.

Policy recommendations

This senior PDI-P politician then recommended several important policies that the government should carry out next year, among others, first, fixing the national tax revenue system. There are at least two opportunities for new sources of revenue in 2022, namely the implementation of a carbon tax and tax amnesty from January 1 to June 30, 2022.

The high production and consumption of carbon-containing goods will clearly contribute to tax revenues from carbon as long as the government immediately completes the technical regulations for its implementation.

"Regarding the tax amnesty volume 2 in 2022, I estimate that I can contribute additional tax revenue of Rp. 110 trillion to Rp. 120 trillion with a record of the readiness of all things from the Directorate General of Taxes, such as the implementation rules, support for human resources, information technology systems, and taxpayer compliance. " he said.

Second, the implementation of a carbon tax has the potential to correct other tax items such as PPh and VAT on oil and gas and coal. This shrinking tax post must be replaced by an increase in the manufacturing sector and downstream processing of other non-oil and gas sectors, including improvements in taxation and non-tax revenues in the telco and e-commerce sectors, which continue to experience high growth.

Third, it must be realized that the oil and gas industry will soon become a sunset industry, investment by the government, BUMN and the private sector must encourage the growth of new and renewable energy as the direction of the industry going forward. To encourage the growth of new and renewable energy, it is mandatory for the government to provide various tax incentives.

"In exchange and encouraging business actors to carry out business transformation, the government needs to consider the increase in coal royalties. Coal royalties are currently still low at 3-7 percent depending on the calorie content," he added.

Fourth, excise revenues have been dominated by excise on tobacco products. While there are many other excisable goods that we can do.

If people's awareness of healthy living gets higher, along with the more restrictive sales of cigarettes, the excise duty on the tobacco products industry will eventually become a sunset industry. It would be better if from next year the government did excise excise.

"Hasn't the Directorate General of Customs and Excise estimated that if the excise duty on plastic and sugary drinks in packaging is imposed, there will at least be additional excise revenues of at least Rp. 13.52 trillion per year. If last year and this year business conditions are difficult due to the pandemic, I think next year It's time for the imposition of excise on the two types of goods above," he explained.

Fifth, in 2019, 41.99 million registered taxpayers (WP) were required, and 18.3 million were required to submit an SPT. The realization of SPT was 13.39 million.

Although from year to year there is an increase in the number of taxpayers, taxpayers who are required to SPT and realization of SPT, we still see many challenges that must be addressed by the national tax sector. Along with the policy of integrating NIK as NPWP, WP should increase drastically.

"If in 2020 the number of working population is 128.4 million, at least the number of taxpayers is that much. From the capital of increasing taxpayers, it is necessary to have the tax authority for tax management data," he said.

From the enhanced database, the tax authorities can pick up the ball. Even though the tax system is self-reported, it means that it depends on the taxpayer's compliance, but it is necessary to consider that in order for the tax authorities to notify taxpayers who are taxable, there are many information channels that can be used to convey it, one of which is a mobile phone number.

That is the need for data integration with Kominfo. The requirement to have reported the SPT can be integrated with other public service requirements, such as; children's school registration, SIM/STNK extension, etc.

Sixth, the transformation of tax revenues must be encouraged to rely on individual income tax. Because if you still rely on corporate income tax, it is very risky to domestic and global economic conditions.

If economic conditions are sluggish, corporate income tax will automatically decline, and the impact of tax revenues will also be corrected.

"This means that if tax revenues still rely on corporate income tax, which in 2019 only amounted to 3.3 million businesses, and which required SPT were 1.47 million, but the realization of the SPT was only 963 thousand, then the risk would be greater," he concluded.