Tax Revenue Drops Due To Many Companies Apply For Tax Restitution

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati revealed that tax revenues until March 15, 2024 only reached Rp342.9 trillion, down 3.7 percent compared to the same period last year of Rp356.2 trillion.

Sri Mulyani explained that the pressure on tax revenues was due to the drop in commodity prices, such as gas prices, which fell 34 percent and coal fell to 12.8 percent year to date (ytd).

"Our tax revenue is a bit under pressure because commodity prices have fallen starting last year. This means that their companies are asking for restitution," said Sri Mulyani during a press conference at the State Budget, Jakarta, Monday, March 25, 2024.

According to Sri Mulyani, based on the type of tax that experienced a drastic decline, namely the income tax (PPh) of the agency which contracted 10.6 percent to Rp 55.91 trillion with a contribution to total tax revenue of only 16.31 percent.

Then, the domestic value added tax (VAT) fell 25.8 percent to Rp65.03 trillion with a contribution to tax revenue, which was 18.97 percent.

Sri Mulyani menyampaikan penurunan PPh Badan dan PPN Dalam Negeri disebabkan oleh penurunan syginifikan harga komoditas pada 2023, yang berdampak pada peningkatan restitution pada 2024.

"Outside of restitution, the gross growth of corporate income tax and domestic VAT is still growing by 7.5 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively," he said.

Meanwhile, on the same occasion, the Director General of Taxes at the Ministry of Finance, Suryo Utomo, said that the total restitution in January and February 2024 was Rp. 57.5 trillion, consisting of restitutions in January of Rp. 30.9 trillion and February of Rp. 26.6 trillion. Meanwhile, until March 15, 2024, it was valued at Rp. 13.1 trillion.

"So this is the progress of restitution from the last few months with March 15, which is true because the impact of the PPh commodity has decreased, will be reported in SPT in 2023 and also when 2022 was reported yesterday in 2023 there are some who have applied for restitution," he said.

For information, based on the definition of the Directorate General of Taxes, restitution is the return of overpayment of taxes. Restitution is carried out based on two conditions, first when taxpayers pay taxes when they should not be payable, and when taxpayers pay taxes greater than they should.

Meanwhile, the provisions related to this restitution are specifically regulated in the Minister of Finance Regulation (PMK) Number 209 of 2021 concerning the Second Amendment to PMK Number 39 of 2018 concerning Procedures for Returning Tax Overpayments.