• 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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  • Kadin Indonesia: Government Needs to Focus on Employment & Education

    Indonesia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) appreciates the 11 economic stimulus packages that have been released by the central government since September 2015. However, Kadin regrets to see that the central government does not put the issue of job creation as the basis of any package. Rosan Roeslani, Chairman of Kadin (and whose name was mentioned in the controversial Panama Papers), said all 11 packages answer to the desires of certain groups (such as investors and industries) but unemployment remains untackled.

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