JAKARTA The chairman of the DPR Commission XI meeting, Dolfie Othniel Frederic Palit, reminded the government to first consult the parliament if it stipulates a tax policy that concerns the interests of the wider community.
He conveyed this to the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani as the government's representative in discussing the provision of an increase in tobacco excise (CHT) 2023.
According to Dolfie, the position of the DPR in this case is very clear that the policy of increasing CHT must obtain legislative approval and cannot be unilaterally decided by the government.
"We remind the Minister of this incident twice (the government's decision) because it was the same last year. The law has been knocked and just asked for consultation. So to maintain equality in the DPR's budgeting rights, so that this does not happen again in the future," he said at the Senayan Parliament Complex, Jakarta on Monday, December 12.
Dolfie added that the constitution firmly states that the government must obtain approval from Commission XI before deciding to increase cigarette excise and other tobacco products.
"Now the law has been knocked (the 2023 State Budget Law). We as supporters of the government can no longer provide input. This is important in order to maintain a partnership that is equal to the DPR's budgeting rights with the government. Next year, don't repeat it again," he said.
Responding to this, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani revealed that the plan to increase tobacco excise has been included in the 2023 State Budget Bill to be later ratified into the State Budget Law.
Some things in the APBN are sometimes even though it has been decided that some still need to be discussed. So the logs have been decided we can discuss it later in Commission XI," he said.
Furthermore, the Minister of Finance also said that the government did not intend to "step over" the DPR in making tax strategic decisions.
"Of course I apologize in terms of the function of the DPR, especially Commission XI for the right of budget, we have no intention of not respecting it," said the Minister of Finance.
For information, in Law Number 3 of 2007 Article 5 Paragraph 4 concerning Excise, it is stated that the determination of the amount of state revenue target from excise on the draft APBN and alternative ministerial policies in optimizing efforts to achieve revenue targets by taking into account the industrial conditions and aspirations of business actors are submitted to the DPR for approval.
To note, the 2023 State Budget Law which has been approved by the tobacco excise revenue target is IDR 232.5 trillion. This figure has taken into account the assumption of an average increase in CHT next year which is 10 percent.
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