Govt on track to meet tax revenue target

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government said on Thursday it had collected some Rp 120.7 trillion (US$13.08 billion) in tax revenue in the first seven months of this year, or 46 percent of the full-year target.

"It is a little higher compared to the figure from the same period last year, which was about Rp 114 trillion," Director General of Taxation Hadi Purnomo was quoted as saying by detik.com.

He said the tax revenue included Rp 58.6 trillion from non-oil and gas income taxes, Rp 12 trillion from oil and gas income taxes, Rp 42.5 trillion from value-added taxes, Rp 6.5 trillion from land and building taxes, and Rp 1.1 trillion from other taxes.

Hadi said he expected tax revenue to surpass the full-year target of Rp 260 trillion, with an expected boost during religious celebrations near the end of the year.

"(During such festivities), the level of consumption rises and there will be enormous value-added tax revenue from the goods that are sold," Hadi said.

He cited last year as an example, when the average monthly tax revenue was about Rp 15 trillion. "But in December 2003 that figure doubled."

Meanwhile, Director General of Excise and Customs Eddy Abdurrachman said excise revenue reached Rp 15.49 trillion as of July.

Import duties accounted for Rp 6.6 trillion of that figure.

Excise revenue, he said, was 13.33 percent higher than in the same period last year, when the figure was about Rp 13.207 trillion.