2000 tax revenue exceeds targets, an official says

JAKARTA (JP): The government booked Rp 97.2 trillion (US$10.2 billion) in tax revenue for the 2000 fiscal year, a Rp 3.2 trillion surplus from the revised target, a senior official announced on Tuesday.

The government initially targeted tax revenue of Rp 85.3 trillion but revised it upwards to Rp 94 trillion late November last year.

Director general of taxes at the Ministry of Finance Machfud Sidik said that the tax revenue target for the nine-month fiscal year of 2000 had been a challenge for his office to fulfill as it was higher than the tax revenue targeted in the 1999/2000 12- month fiscal year, which stood at Rp 92.14 trillion.

Tax receipts for the 1999/2000 fiscal year totaled Rp 95.57 trillion.

The 2000 fiscal year ran for only nine months, from April to December, because the government was shifting to a calendar-based fiscal year.

Although the overall receipts exceeded the target set by the government, revenue from non-oil and gas sectors fell short of the expected target.

Non-oil and gas income tax receipts were expected to total Rp 40.14 trillion last fiscal year, of which only Rp 38.3 trillion had been realized as of Dec. 30, Machfud said.

"If broken down, the major shortfall came from income tax on bank deposits which was targeted at Rp 11 trillion but only reached Rp 5.7 trillion," Machfud said.

Analysts have said that unattractive term deposit rates have prompted people to withdraw their savings, thus cutting the government's income tax revenue.

Machfud admitted that Indonesian people have been lax in fulfilling their obligations as taxpayers.

"(This laxity comes from) all sectors, civil servants, tycoons, small and medium businessmen, the professionals, including members of the House of Representatives," he said.

Machfud earlier said that Indonesia was too dependent on corporate tax receipts and needed a stronger base of individual taxpayers.

Out of approximately 20 million potential individual taxpayers in the country, only 1.3 million were registered with his office, he said.

However, Machfud said that more members of the House were now registered as taxpayers compared to the beginning of the year.

"More than half of House members weren't registered as taxpayers at the beginning of the year, now there are only a small number left," he said.

Revenue shortfalls were also evident from the so-called "other taxes", including revenue from stamp duty, which reached a total of Rp 890.7 billion against the targeted Rp 1 trillion, Machfud said.

"But these are small numbers which don't have much effect on the overall earnings," he explained.

Value-added tax (VAT) showed a surplus of more than Rp 3 trillion for fiscal 2000, totaling Rp 34.94 trillion as of Dec. 30, up from the targeted Rp 31.5 trillion, Machfud said.

Receipts from property taxes also exceeded the target of Rp 3.8 trillion at Rp 4.5 trillion last fiscal year, he said.

The directorate general of taxes oversees the collection of income tax, value-added tax, land and property taxes, as well as taxes included in the category of "other taxes". Excise, import and export duties are collected by the directorate general of customs and excise.

Machfud said the government expected his directorate to collect Rp 152.4 trillion during fiscal 2001, or about 85 percent of the government's total tax revenue for the period.

"With economic conditions not yet fully recovered, (this target) will be quite difficult to achieve," he said, adding that his office accepted this as a challenge. (tnt)