TANJUNG PANDAN. The Directorate General of Taxation has said that it achieved 75 percent of its target in the tax amnesty that ended on March 31, in what was recorded as the biggest tax amnesty in the country's history.

As much as Rp 4.88 quadrillion ($367.22 million) in asset value was declared during the nine-month long tax amnesty. Rp 147 trillion were repatriated assets while the government secured Rp 134.99 trillion in revenue from tariffs, according to the office's recently updated data.

While the declared assets exceeded the expectation, the repatriation and tariff revenue did not achieve its target, said tax office spokesman Hestu Yoga Saksama.

"Out of the Rp 1 quadrillion repatriation target, we hit only Rp 147 trillion, while compared to the Rp 167 trillion tariff revenue target, we got only Rp 135 trillion," Hestu said at a media briefing in Tanjung Pandan, Bangka-Belitung province, on Sunday.

Hestu added that in 2016, 1,556,000 registered taxpayers paid less than they should have. The tax office also recorded Rp 35 trillion in arrears that had been solved through the program.

In terms of registered taxpayers, the tax office recorded 52,757 new taxpayers during the tax amnesty. The tax office also obtained the data of 56,600 taxpayers who did not pay their tax money and 722,907 taxpayers who have yet to submit their tax forms.

"Now what? We cannot use the amnesty anymore. We could use the data to ask the taxpayers to pay the tax money," he said.

The tax office’s audit and collection department marked Rp 18.5 trillion from law enforcement as of March and it would launch an investigation in May, the results of which would be obtained between August and November.

"With the tax amnesty, currently we have clear data as well as stronger evidence for investigation," Hestu said. (bbn)

Editor: Yudho Winarto