• Weak Tax Collection, Indonesia Wants to Cut Government Spending

    Due to weaker-than-expected revenue in 2016, the government of Indonesia has to cut government spending by IDR 50.6 trillion (approx. USD $3.8 billion) this year. Indonesian Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro informed that the government is currently in the middle of discussing revisions of the 2016 State Budget (APBN 2016). Weaker-than-expected government revenue is primarily the cause of weaker-than-targeted tax revenue. The government will also revise its inflation, average rupiah rate, and average oil price targets. Despite the expected cut

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  • Indonesia's Foreign Exchange Reserves Rose in March 2016

    The central bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia) announced that the nation's foreign exchange reserves rose to a total of USD $107.5 billion at the end of March 2016, up USD $3 billion from Indonesia's forex assets one month earlier. Growing reserves came on the back of foreign exchange receipts, primarily through the the issuance of government global sukuk (Islamic bonds) and Bank Indonesia's US dollar-denominated bills. These forex receipts outweighed the government's foreign debt obligations.

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  • Indonesia to Raise Non-Taxable Income by 50% in 2016

    The government of Indonesia plans to raise non-taxable income by 50 percent from IDR 36 million (approx. USD $2,727) to IDR 54 million (approx. USD $4,090) in a bid to strengthen people's purchasing power and encourage household consumption. Although at first sight this move should lead to curtailed (income) tax collection, the Indonesian government expects that rising household consumption and investment will lead to higher value-added tax (VAT) and corporate income tax revenue. This should then add 0.16 percentage point to the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

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  • Panama Papers: World's Greatest Leak Shows Massive Tax Evasion

    Not only in Indonesia but also around the globe tax evasion remains a major problem for governments and tax offices. This problem was again highlighted by the Panama Papers, the massive leak involving around 11.5 million confidential documents from the database of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. These documents make mention of political figures, businessmen, celebrities and sport stars who have created secret shell companies and offshore accounts in an effort to avoid tax obligations. World leaders have again vowed to combat tax evasion.

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