Finance Minister: tax is an instrument to overcome social gap

Jakarta, InfoPublik - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the government will continue to optimize tax revenue to overcome social inequality.

"Taxes can serve as an effective instrument to address social inequality, while other instrument is through village fund transfer. The village funds are already available in the state budget (APBN), but regions must implement it effectively,” the Finance Minister said in Jakarta, Thursday (2/23).

She continued that the central can intervene the local governments by implementing fiscal policy. It is because the ratio of the funding between the central and local governments is proportional. Even in 2017, the grant for local governments is increased Rp1 trillion higher.

She added that she wanted to accelerate the implementation of automatic exchange of information (AEOI) in financial sector.

“AEoI is one of the solutions to pursue Indonesian taxpayers abroad through any international bank accounts. Currently, the regulation in lieu of law [Perppu] for AEoI is being prepared as the legal umbrella to implement the agreement in Indonesia," she said.

The policy will need support from various parties so it can work as it should be. "We declare that there is no place to hide for tax evaders," she said. (Translator: Rina Alexandra)