JAKARTA, COMPASS.TV - Executive director The PRAKARSA, research and policy advocacy institutes, Ah Maftuchan, proposed that the Directorate General of Taxes and the Directorate General of Customs and Excise be separated from the Ministry of Finance.
This is an institutional reform so that performance and supervision can be more optimal, so that public trust will be higher.
After being separated from the Ministry of Finance, the two agencies should be merged into one State Revenue Agency (LPN) which is directly responsible to the president.
“The fat account owned by (former) tax official Rafael Alun Trisambodo and the dissolution of the big motorbike club in the Directorate General of Taxes by the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati has triggered a decline in public trust in the tax authorities," said Ah Maftuchan in his written statement, Thursday (2/3/2023).
"On the other hand, the case of Rafael Alun Trisambodo and the big motorcycle club has stimulated the discourse of the need for fundamental institutional reform of the tax authority in Indonesia," he said.
He said the case occurred due to a lack of internal oversight of the tax authority.
"Institutional reform of the tax authority can be carried out by separating the Directorate General of Taxes from the Ministry of Finance to become an autonomous institution under the direct president," he said.
"In order to make reform of the state revenue authority more comprehensive, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise can also be separated from the Ministry of Finance and merged with the Directorate General of Taxes to become a State Revenue Agency (LPN)," he said.
According to Ah Maftuchan, the presence of LPN will improve the performance of taxation, customs and excise as a whole. As a result, state revenue will increase in accordance with the existing potential and public trust in state revenue authorities will increase.
"By being separated from the Ministry of Finance, in general the institutional governance of the Directorate General of Taxes and the Directorate General of Customs and Excise as autonomous institutions can reduce the 'super power' of the Ministry of Finance because it separates the authority for state revenue and the state treasury," he said.
"In addition, this separation can also increase accountability, increase supervision and reduce potential conflicts of interest," said Ah Maftuchan who is also the Co-coordinator of Tax and Fiscal Justice Asia (TAFJA).
To strengthen this step, according to Maftuchan, it is also important to reform the tax court which has been under the Ministry of Finance to be moved under the Supreme Court.
Maftuchan believes that if this is done it will be a good step at the end of President Joko Widodo's administration. Because this will greatly impact the orientation and governance of state revenue, both from tax and non-tax sources in the future.
In fact, said Maftuchan, the discourse on establishing a tax collection authority directly responsible to the President had been raised since the beginning of President Joko Widodo's administration.
However, this discourse evaporated because there was reluctance from within the Ministry of Finance.
"If the formation of the State Revenue Agency begins, it will have a significant impact on our government, there will be social and economic benefits from this policy," he said.
"The State Revenue Agency can be a new milestone for Indonesia in order to increase the ability to mobilize sources of state revenue and increase the country's ability to fund Indonesia's development going forward," he said.
The establishment of the Tax Revenue Agency as a Semi-Autonomous Revenue Authority (SARA) model which is directly under the President has been implemented by many countries such as the United States, China and New Zealand.
Sumber: compass.tv
