Income tax yield nearly doubles initial target
Income tax yield nearly doubles initial target
JAKARTA (JP): State revenue from income tax in the 1998/1999
fiscal year ending in March is expected to reach Rp 49.71
trillion (about US$5.8 billion), double the initial target of Rp
25.85 trillion.
Minister of Finance Bambang Subianto attributed the increase
in tax revenue to high interest rates on time deposits and the
healthy performance of the mining and agribusiness sectors.
"The higher than expected income tax receipts were partly due
to the high income tax payments from agribusiness and mining
companies, which mostly reported a windfall profit during the
fiscal year," the minister told the House of Representatives at a
plenary session to approve revisions of the 1998/1999 state
budget.
Interest rates have hovered around 35 percent and 45 percent
per annum as the monetary authority tightened currency supply to
prevent a further fall in the rupiah.
The government did not provide data on the tax revenue from
exports. But value added tax revenue declined slightly from Rp
28.94 trillion to Rp 28.4 trillion.
The total state budget revenue was expected to reach Rp 215.13
trillion, about 81.5 percent of the target due to lower receipts
from oil and gas exports. The total spending could be squeezed to
Rp 215.59 trillion, or about 81.6 percent of the initial
estimate, but the budget would still suffer an estimated deficit
of Rp 456.7 billion.
State income and spending were initially set at Rp 263.89
trillion.
Bambang said the declining trend in oil prices and improving
exchange rate of the rupiah against the dollar had affected the
oil revenue target.
On the spending side, the strengthening of the rupiah, the
restructuring of government debt, and the lifting of government
subsidies on certain commodities since September had sliced
routine spending by some 14 percent, he said.
The rupiah fluctuated between Rp 7,000 and Rp 9,000 against
the dollar in the second semester of the fiscal year. The
government's revenue projection was initially based on the
assumption that the rupiah would stand at Rp 10,600 to the
dollar. (rei)