JAKARTA – The Fair Tax Forum asks the government to cancel the tax amnesty plan for super-rich taxpayers. This is because it will be counterproductive to efforts to optimize tax revenue.

“This will also be a step backward in law enforcement taxation, money laundering,” said Coordinator of the Fair Tax Forum Ah Maftuchan in Jakarta, Sunday (10/4/2016).

He said he considered that tax amnesty would also reduce the level of tax compliance by taxpayers. Tax amnesty will weaken the authority of the government in the presence of super-rich people and corporations.

“Tax amnesty will hurt small, medium taxpayers who have a monthly salary, who have been obedient to pay taxes,” he continued.

Moreover, according to data, the 2015 Global Financial Integrity (GFI) reports that every year developing countries lose USD 1 trillion due to corruption, tax evasion, and money laundering. GFI also predicts that the potential for tax evaporation from Indonesia due to the practice of escaping illicit money amounts to almost Rp200 trillion each year.

“The high flow of illicit money from Indonesia is due to the low level of tax compliance (rich, super-rich and corporate),” Transparency International Indonesia Secretary-General Dadang Trisasongko said.

Meanwhile, Publish What You Pay Indonesia Coalition said, Indonesia was in the 7th position of the countries with the highest illicit money flows. In the 2003-2012 period, Indonesia recorded funds flowing in the amount of Rp1,699 trillion or an average of Rp167 trillion per year.

“Using the same method for the same calculation, we recorded the alleged illicit total cash flow in Indonesia in 2014 amounting to Rp227.75 trillion or 11.7 percent of the total APBN-P 2014,” concluded PWYP Indonesia National Coordinator Maryati Abdullah.