JAKARTA. The plan of the government and the Indonesian Parliament to discuss the tax amnesty clause, aka the tax amnesty in the National Forgiveness Bill, has been criticized by several NGOs, especially from the mining sector. The reason is that the candidates for the policy are considered unfair and cause legal uncertainty.
Wiko Saputra, Researcher of Economic Policy Publish What You Pay Indonesia said, the amount of illegal money flow in Indonesia reached Rp 227.75 trillion in 2014. Well, the mining sector accounted for the largest portion of cash flow aimed at avoiding or attempting tax evasion, the amount was around Rp 23.89 trillion.
According to him, the flow of illegal money in the mining sector is generally through fake invoice transactions. Understandably, this was done by illegal mining alias. In addition, it also did not rule out the possibility of tax evasion crime involving mining companies both oil and gas as well as large-scale minerals and coal.
As an illustration, the realization of tax revenue data in the mining sector is only Rp.96.9 trillion. “Compare with the gross domestic product (GDP) of the mining sector which reached Rp 1,026 trillion, meaning the ratio of tax revenue to GDP (tax ratio) was only 9.4%,” said Wiko, last weekend.
In addition, the results of the coordination of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) also found 1,880 mining business licenses (IUP) do not have a taxpayer identification number (NPWP). As many as 2,741 companies were proven not to report notification letters (SPT).
Therefore, Wiko objected to the plan to grant tax amnesty to entrepreneurs including those in the mining sector who have the potential to be involved in illegal mining and environmental damage. “Seeing the practice of tax crimes committed by mining companies, it is very unfair if they are given forgiveness,” he said.