JakartaPost-Jan 7, 2024
In order to turn their campaign promises into reality, the three presidential candidates have sought to boost state revenue by tweaking the country’s taxation policies, such as by targeting the country’s richest individuals, big tech companies and increasing the share of value added tax (VAT). All the candidates share a common plan to establish a new state revenue agency that requires the Finance Ministry to spin off and combine two of its revenue arms, namely the tax and customs and excise offices. However, their similarities end at this point, with each pair differing on which taxes they want to change and by how much. Presidential candidate and the current Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto aims to increase Indonesia’s tax ratio to between 13 and 14 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the current administration’s 10.21 percent, which was realized last year. Thomas “Tom” Lembong, cocaptain of the Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar campaign team, said the pair sought to increase the tax ratio to between 13 and 16 percent by 2029. To do that, it would introduce a wealth tax, which he saw as a better option than raising the PTKP threshold, as it could better target high-income individuals. Anies’ campaign team also plans to lower income taxes for lower and middle-income people, as well as taxes on education, healthcare and interest earned from time deposits. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/business/2024/01/07/presidential-candidates-eye-more-tax-on-the-rich-digital-firms-to-raise-revenue.html
