Commodity Prices Start Sloping, Directorate General Of Taxes Choose Conservatives In Setting Revenue Targets

Director General of Taxes at the Ministry of Finance Suryo Utomo (Photo: screenshot of the Directorate General of Taxes Youtube)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Finance through the Directorate General of Taxes responded to the current situation regarding the downward trend in commodity prices that occurred in the second semester of 2022.

Director General of Taxes Suryo Utomo said that this condition is considered to be able to affect tax revenues that have been and will be prepared by the government in the APBN. According to Suryo, his party chose to be conservative in the midst of continued uncertainty.

"We are quite prudent in estimating the achievement of future targets because we never know what commodity prices will be," he said in a press briefing, Tuesday, August 2.

Suryo gave an example, at the end of last year Indonesia began to benefit from the windfall phenomenon through the increase in commodity prices, especially coal and palm oil. This then also supports the achievement of the tax target in the APBN after previously being absent for the last 13 years.

"We never know that commodity prices will move extraordinary in 2021 and early 2022, including how it will be in 2023. So, we are trying slowly how to expect targets," he said.

However, Sri Mulyani's staff still believes that the commodity trend is still in the high price range so that it can have a positive influence on the state revenue sector.

"We are optimistic and at the same time wary of commodity price movements and this will continue to be monitored from time to time," he said.

For information, tax revenue until the first semester of 2022 has reached Rp. 868.3 trillion, equivalent to 58.5 percent of the ceiling of Perpres 98/2022, which amounted to Rp. 1,485 trillion.

The slick nick in the first half of the year recorded a growth of 55.7 percent compared to the same period last year which amounted to Rp557.8 trillion.