The tax office reported on Monday it was optimistic that this year's tax revenue would exceed the targeted amount, despite impacts of the global financial downturn.
Finance Ministry taxation director general Darmin Nasution told journalists that this year his office had aimed to collect Rp 535 trillion (around US$45 billion) from taxes -- a 25.5 percent increase form Rp 426.23 trillion in 2007.
"Our total tax revenue for 2008 will exceed that, probably by more than 5 percent," Darmin said on the sidelines of a Finance Ministry event in West Sumatra.
In theory, he added, if the global financial downturn slows the Indonesian economy down it would also decrease inflation and eventually slow the increase in tax revenue.
"But we are still analyzing and evaluating the impacts of the crisis on the revenue," he said.
Tax revenue has been increasing over the last five years. The Directorate General of Taxation secured Rp 176.2 trillion in collected taxes in 2002; Rp 204.15 trillion in 2003; Rp 238.98 trillion in 2004; Rp 298.34 trillion in 2005; Rp 358.05 trillion in 2006 and Rp 426.23 trillion in 2007.
Last year, tax revenue accounted for around 70 percent of the country's revenue. (dre)
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