JAKARTA – The performance of Ministry of Finance employees continues to receive sharp scrutiny. Last March, a number of people and public figures opened their voices on social media sharing unpleasant experiences when dealing with customs and tax officials.
Alissa Wahid, the eldest daughter of the 4th President of the Republic of Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid recounted the behavior of a customs officer at Soekarno Hatta Airport who behaved intimidatingly towards her upon her return from Taiwan. The officer unloaded all her belongings while interrogating her.
"I opened my suitcase while he asked for a passport. Me: 'Only 3 days in Taiwan' Officer: 'What work do you do for 3 days in Taiwan? How come you carry such a big suitcase? Buy anything? How much do you get paid?' Me: 'Conference' Officer: ' How come you can shop & carry a lot of stuff? What do you do?' Ndedes..," wrote Alissa still in a conversational form on March 20.
She was just stressed about being treated like that, what about the migrant workers (TKI) who have just returned to Indonesia?
"After that, when I landed in Cengkareng with the TKI and I was no longer tired, I like to be with PMI who is a girl, just in case. I'm the only one who can call Paspampres anytime, I'm quite stressed about being treated like that. What's more, PMI has no experience," continued Alissa.
Fatimah Zahratunnisa also shared her experience when negotiating with unscrupulous customs officers at Soekarno Hatta Airport so that the trophy she got from an amateur singing competition in Japan could reach her home.
The officer asked for money which she said was a tax of IDR 4.8 million so that the trophy could come out.
"Winning a competition but why I should pay? I don't accept it. In the end, I submit many complicated things, it takes a lot of blablabla letters to prove that it's a gift. Until I showed the video of the TV show, then the customs officers believe it. What's more, they asked me TO SING in the office to prove whether I could sing or not," said Fatimah.
The Acting Head of the Communication and Information Bureau of the Ministry of Finance, Yustinus Prastowo, via his Twitter account, immediately responded to these complaints one by one.
Instead of subsiding, similar complaints are still popping up. The performance of the Customs officers even became a foreign media review. Media from Taiwan, CTS reported on the actions of unscrupulous customs officials who extorted tourists from Taiwan who had just arrived in Bali last weekend.
CTS in its report explained that when they arrived at Ngurah Rai Airport, Bali, the Taiwanese tourists took photos and informed the driver who would be bringing their entourage.
Shortly thereafter, unscrupulous customs officers came to him and took him in for questioning. Initially, he was asked to pay a fine of US $ 4,000. After negotiating because they were considered to have just committed the first violation, the tourist was only subject to a fine of IDR 4 million.
Referring to the Minister of Transportation Regulation Number PM 80 of 2017, there are indeed several areas at the airport that are not allowed to take photos.
Namely at the flight security checkpoint, the flight security control place, the immigration service place, and the customs service place.
However, that is not the authority of Customs. Moreover, there are no special fines, violators are only asked to delete photos.
"We will still try to coordinate with various parties so that we can find out the real problem and communicate with those concerned. We can also convey that currently, we are in the process of coordinating with the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office in Taipei," said Head of Subdirectorate of Public Relations and Customs and Excise Counseling Hatta Wardhana in his official statement on April 13, 2023.
Soimah's Building Tax Case
Not only customs, but the actions of unscrupulous employees of the Director General of Taxes are also in the spotlight. Many people complain about various things about taxes. Not infrequently these complaints become questions as to what the correct rules are.
Like the confession of the artist Soimah Pancawati who had problems with unscrupulous tax officers when constructing buildings. It turns out that self-building activities with a minimum building area of 200 square meters are also subject to tax, namely Value Added Tax (VAT).
This rule is contained in the Regulation of the Minister of Finance (PMK) Number 61/PMK.03/2022 concerning VAT on Self-Building Activities (KMS). Applicable for new construction or renovation, whether carried out in stages or not gradually which does not exceed a period of 2 years. The VAT payable period for KMS starts from the initial construction process until it is completed.
The Director of Counseling, Services and Public Relations (P2Humas) of the Directorate General of Taxes (DJP) of the Ministry of Finance, Neilmaldrin Noor, said that KMS is a VAT object that is subject to a certain amount of VAT facilities.
"This means that the KMS VAT rate or self-build tax rate is different from the general VAT rate. The general VAT rate is 11 percent, while the KMS VAT rate or self-build tax rate is subject to a special rate of 2.2 percent of the Tax Imposition Basis (DPP) in the form of all costs, excluding land acquisition costs," he explained as quoted from Klikpajak.
Referring to Article 3 Paragraph 2 PMK 61/2022, the special KMS VAT rate of 2.2 percent is the result of multiplying 20 percent by the VAT rate as stipulated in Article 7 Paragraph 1 of the VAT Law multiplied by the Tax Imposition Basis (DPP).
An example of building a private house with a building area of 300 square meters. Building owners spent a total of IDR 280 million for building materials and construction workers.
The amount of VAT payable on KMS that must be borne is 2.2 percent x IDR 280 million, which results in IDR 6,160,000. However, this formula does not apply if the construction uses the services of a contractor who is classified as a Taxable Entrepreneur (PKP).
Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani in her Instagram account also responded to Soimah's confession by uploading a video explaining the case.
"I asked the @ditjenpajakri team to research the problems experienced by Mrs. Soimah," Sri wrote on April 9.
"We will continue to make service improvements. Thank you for the input and constructive criticism. For a better Indonesia," she continued.
Do the Clean Up
Reflecting on these various problems, it seems that the Ministry of Finance needs to improve. Carry out internal cleaning so that the public believes that the taxes paid are indeed used for development, not to enrich Ministry of Finance employees, especially employees of the Directorate General of Taxes and Customs.
Because it is undeniable, the image of tax and customs officials in the eyes of the public at this time is not very good. Moreover, with the emergence of the case of Rafael Alun Trisambodo's wealth which does not make sense. Also, the lifestyle of a number of Ministry of Finance officials who show off luxury goods on social media.
The public, through social media, continues to hope that Sri Mulyani will not just lip service to calm the public's commotion, but be able to show quality in eradicating the 'thieves' in her ranks.
President Joko Widodo has explicitly instructed it. Ministries and agencies must develop clear and firm guidelines regarding what state employees and officials may and may not do.
“What can and cannot be done must be clear. Then at the National Police as well as at the Attorney General's Office and other law enforcement officials also fix it first inside, then finalize and clean up the ministries and other institutions," the President said in a plenary cabinet meeting at the Merdeka Palace, last March.
Apart from that, it is also important for the Ministry of Finance to further promote the dissemination of tax and customs rules so that the public can avoid the actions of rogue officials.
A number of literacy shows that apart from low service quality, low taxpayer compliance is also due to ignorance. They are very aware that taxes are the main source of state revenue to finance all development spending.
However, they don't understand the tax law, which changes frequently. Meanwhile, the education and information provided by the government through the Directorate General of Taxes (DGT) is mostly limited to advertisements. Look at the Soimah case, how many people understand that building a house can be taxed.
Quoting the statement of Member of Commission III DPR RI Santoso in responding to the steps taken by the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD to dismantle the case within the Ministry of Finance, "Better late than not done at all."
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