JAKARTA - The tax revenue target is considered necessary to be reduced to be more in line with the national economic conditions which are still overshadowed by the weakness of people's purchasing power and the slowdown in the business world. Adjusting the target is considered a more realistic step than continuing to pursue high revenue when the tax base has not experienced significant improvement.
Head of Research Center for Indonesian Taxation Analysis (CITA) Fajry Akbar said the government should adjust the tax revenue target while carrying out state expenditure efficiency so that fiscal policy remains in line with economic conditions.
According to him, the low tax ratio in Indonesia cannot be separated from the still low level of people's income compared to other countries in the ASEAN region.
"If you use ILO (International Labour Organization) data, the average income of workers in Indonesia is the lowest in ASEAN. It is natural that the tax ratio is one of the lowest in ASEAN," said Fajry, quoted from Antara, Saturday, July 18.
He assessed that the target for tax revenue was too high, which could potentially encourage tax officials to carry out excessive supervision of taxpayers. This condition is considered to add pressure for business actors when economic activity is still sluggish.
Fajry said the government should focus on monitoring sectors that directly benefit from state spending. According to him, Indonesia's economic growth in the first half of 2026 was more supported by government spending.
"What drives the economy in the first semester? More because of government spending. Who enjoys government spending? SPPG entrepreneurs and those related. That's what we have to chase after the tax," he said.
The statement was made amid the policy of the Directorate General of Taxes (DJP) which expands the supervision of taxpayer compliance through Circular Letter Number SE-8/PJ/2026 concerning Guidelines for Taxpayer Compliance Supervision.
Through this regulation, the DJP expands the use of information technology and databases to the village level. In addition to conducting direct visits, tax authorities will also use remote sensing technology, web scraping, and build an information network by involving Village Head (Babinsa) and Bhayangkara Security and Community Security (Bhabinkamtibmas).
Fajry reminded that data obtained through the new mechanism must be able to prove the potential for tax revenue that has not been tapped. If the quality of the data is inadequate, according to him, the policy has the potential to trigger disputes between the fiscal and taxpayers.
"It will definitely create new disputes, especially if the data quality is low or the fiscal has a different interpretation of the data," he said.
He also assessed that the involvement of Babinsa and Bhabinkamtibmas in the development of the tax information network needed to be explained in more detail so as not to cause concern among the public, especially MSMEs.
"Unfortunately, this circular does not explain what is meant by the development of the information network, nor its limits to where? On one hand, this gives the impression of militarism in the excavation of tax revenue which should be a civilian domain. On the other hand, this gives a sense of concern to rural MSMEs," he said.
Based on government data, the realization of national tax revenue in the first semester of 2026 reached IDR 1,035.7 trillion or 43.9 percent of the 2026 state budget target. This value grew 24.6 percent compared to the same period last year.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa previously projected tax revenue throughout 2026 to reach IDR 2,310.8 trillion or around 98.8 percent of the state budget target of IDR 2,357.7 trillion. With this projection, tax revenue is expected to experience a shortfall of around IDR 46.9 trillion, although smaller than the revenue shortfall in 2025 which reached around IDR 271 trillion.
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