Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hopes Shadow Economy Will No Longer Exist

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs (Menko) Airlangga Hartarto. (Photo: Doc. VOI)

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto revealed that the government is trying to monitor economic activity clearly so that it can reduce the practice of evaluating tax payments.

"Yes, we hope that there will be no more shadow economy, the more official the better, because in terms of taxation and others will be monitored," said Airlangga at the office of the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, quoted Tuesday, October 29.

However, Airlangga said that he had not been able to reveal in detail the strategy that would be implemented by the Government to collect tax revenue from shadow or underground economy activities.

"We'll see what we'll do later," he said.

Previously, Deputy Minister of Finance Anggito Abimanyu said that he was encouraging the Directorate General of Taxes (Directorate General of Taxes) to attract shadow economic actors or shadow economy that interferes with Indonesia's tax revenues.

For information from Investopedia, shadow economy refers to economic transactions that are considered illegal, either because goods or services traded violate the law, or because transactions do not meet government reporting requirements. This term is also known as an underground economy, an underground economy, or an informal economy.

Anggito explained that many Indonesians are involved in online gambling, including betting on the score of English clubs' football matches and various other forms of gambling.

"Wow, there are so many onshore and offshore, there are so many Indonesians setting football in England. There are so many," he said at the Senate Open Meeting: Puncak Dies Natalis 15th & Lustrum III UGM Vocational School in 2024, Monday, October 28.

"He did an online setting like that, he didn't pay, he didn't get a fine, he was considered not haram, he didn't pay taxes anymore. Even though he won it. If he got the win, he would increase the PPh," he said.

Anggito said this should be a concern for employees of the Directorate General of Taxes and related schemes that are being formulated, including for the imposition of online game taxes.

"So tax friends must be smart. To find out that this is an additional super income from an underground economy including online games," he said.

Anggito explained that the income earned from these activities was not recorded as tax revenue.

"We open our eyes that actually many underground economies are not registered, are not recorded, and do not pay taxes. So we take the rich," he explained.