Warning From Sri Mulyani To Tax Evaders: Wherever You Are, It Will Be Difficult For You To Hide Your Wealth

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

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani emphasized that the Indonesian government is very active in exchanging tax information with various countries within the framework of international cooperation.

According to the Minister of Finance, this will further narrow the space for anyone to hide assets that are included in the tax collection category.

"We convey to all of you that it is now very difficult to hide assets in any jurisdiction," she said during a virtual working meeting with Commission XI of the DPR RI, Monday, June 28.

The Minister of Finance added that the government has now received tax data from foreign countries (inbound) worth Rp2,742 trillion. Meanwhile, for the domestic area, she said, it was not less than Rp3,574 trillion.

"In our country, we have access for tax purposes in all financial institutions," she said.

Furthermore, she explained that the Directorate General of Taxes has processed all the data very carefully. This can be seen from the SPT records that have been classified from 795,505 taxpayers (WP) with a nominal value of Rp5,646 trillion.

As for those who are still in the clarification stage, there are as many as 131,438 taxpayers amounting to Rp670 trillion.

"Various tax reforms and changes globally have now provided access to the Directorate General of Taxes to continue to make improvements, especially for taxpayers who have inter-jurisdictional operating activities," she explained.

To note, the era of confidentiality of financial data, especially banking, has collapsed along with the ratification of the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAC) in 2011. Sri Mulyani called this step as Indonesia's effort with 141 world countries to start a period of global tax information disclosure.

Then, another strategic option taken by state officials is to promulgate Perpu 1/2017 jo. Law 9/2017 on financial access to tax information.

“During the period 2017 to 2019, this paved the way for the automatic exchange of financial information. This reform agenda will continue in the future," concluded the Minister of Finance.