Purbaya's Joke to Tax Chief on Coretax: You'll Get a Small Bonus Later

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa has confirmed that the core taxation system, or Coretax, is undergoing improvements, even though it has faced significant criticism from various parties. These enhancements, he stated, are impacting tax revenues positively.

Purbaya noted that the number of annual tax notice (SPT) reports has reached 13 million taxpayers, with 10 million of them being individual taxpayers.

“This shows that, besides economic improvements, there is a positive impact from Coretax, and individual filings have risen by 83%,” said Purbaya during the APBN KITA release on Tuesday (5/5/2026).

“So Coretax demonstrates improvement despite its weaknesses,” he added.

Purbaya assured that further improvements will continue in the future, and he expressed confidence that the impact on state revenues will be evident. In recognition of this progress, Purbaya deemed Director General of Taxes Bimo Wijayanto worthy of a small bonus.

“So Mr Bimo can be given a small bonus,” he quipped, followed by laughter from Ministry of Finance staff and reporters.

On this occasion, the Director General of Taxes acknowledged a decline in annual SPT reporting with Coretax. This, according to Bimo, is due to several factors. First, the inclusion of husband and wife NPWP reporting within Coretax.

“This is because, in principle, the family is one unit, so one SPT is sufficient,” he said.

Another factor is the policy of relaxing SPT reporting for corporate taxpayers. Nevertheless, he stated that the number of high-quality SPT reports has increased sharply in our Coretax system. This aligns with the high number of SPT reports showing underpayments.

“So the quality of SPT reporting has improved in line with the enhancements to our Coretax system,” Bimo emphasised.