Be punctual with taxes: VP

Makassar. Vice President Jusuf Kalla called for people of Makassar to preserve the tradition of punctuality in the payment of taxes.

“I wish all companies in Makassar will do the same, to be punctual in paying taxes as we have done to date,” said the Vice President when delivering his remarks during the submission week of annual tax assessment (SPT) at Wisma Kalla building in Makassar on Friday (March, 4).

He then told a roman philosophy on the relation between taxes and the existence of government and people’s welfare.

“A strong state should have a good government and powerful militaries. The state should have money to fund both entities and the people. To have the money, government needs to collect taxes from the people. In return, government has to provide public with facilities. The relationship between a country and taxes is like a cycle, never-ending,” he argued.

According to the Vice President, currently government highly hinges on tax revenue as the national income. It is, he added, different from the situation in 1970’s until 1980’s where Indonesia depended on its high oil sales for its income.

“76 percent of our national income now comes from tax revenue. Meaning that our state budget highly depends on the tax revenues,” he said, adding that government is making every effort to improve its information technology in tax administration in a bid to boost tax revenues.

“We would modernize our tax system so that people will know and could cross check their transactions and how much tax they should pay,” the Vice President said.

Regarding tax amnesty, according to him, government has no choice but issuing such policy in the hope that this would encourage taxpayers to disclose their tax records and thus would boost state revenues.

“Yet, we cannot apply such a policy all the time, otherwise we would not show consideration for honest tax payers,” he said.

On the occasion, the Vice President submitted his annual tax assessment (SPT) using electronic filing (e-filing) system, assisted by Head of Regional Office of Directorate General of Taxation for South, West, and South East Sulawesi, Neil Maldrin Noor. (D/F)