We are flabbergasted to learn that the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) is continuing to lobby the government for an indiscriminate tax amnesty it claims to be vital for luring back the billions of dollars Indonesian businesspeople took out of the country during the height of the economic crisis in 1998.

But we should also highly commend Tax Director General Darmin Nasution for his outright rejection of the Kadin proposal, arguing that such an economically and politically sensitive issue is better left for the new government to resolve.

This is yet more evidence reassuring us that despite the presidential elections next year the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono government has not succumbed to the temptation to flirt with the idea of distributing political goodies to gain voter support.

Kadin has lobbied for the indiscriminate tax amnesty since 2003, and the idea got strong political support within the government when Aburizal Bakrie, himself a former Kadin chairman, was the chief economics minister from October 2004 to December 2005.

At first glance, such a facility seemed necessary to help broaden the tax base and woo back the billions of dollars parked overseas by Indonesian conglomerates at the height of the economic crisis.

However, the idea eventually died out due to strong public opposition, especially after Boediono took over the leadership of the government's economic team in December 2005.

Boediono had strongly opposed the tax amnesty lobbies even when he was the finance minister under the Megawati Soekarnoputri administration until late 2004.

The core argument against the tax pardon is that such a facility would mostly benefit the big conglomerates, including the former bank owners, who, according to an investigative audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) in 1999, misused Rp 138.5 trillion (US$15.05 billion) of the Rp 145 trillion Bank Indonesia funds extended in emergency liquidity credits to help bail out the banking industry in 1998 and 1999.

It would gravely insult the public's sense of justice if those same conglomerates, which had previously been released and discharged from criminal charges related to their bad debts, were granted tax amnesty under a weak and corrupt tax administration system.

Such a scheme would benefit mostly businesspeople and big tax evaders and allow them to launder their hidden assets.

It is then mind-boggling that Kadin Chairman MS Hidayat had revived the tax amnesty idea even after the recent disclosure that several senior state attorneys had been implicated in collusion for releasing several big conglomerates from corruption charges related to the central bank's liquidity credits.

The testimonies from several witnesses at the current trial of senior state attorney Tri Urip Gunawan revealed how even deputy attorneys general allegedly took part in the conspiracy in clearing businessmen of corruption charges.

Despite our desperate need for new private investment to reinvigorate the economy and for a broader tax base to increase tax revenue, granting an indiscriminate tax amnesty would only insult the public's sense of justice and damage the credibility of our tax collection system in the future.

We think the so-called Sunset Policy currently implemented by the tax directorate general is already adequate to stimulate voluntary tax compliance.

Under this policy, an individual who voluntarily registers for a Taxpayer Identification Number (NPWP) this year and files annual tax returns for 2007 and for previous years by the end of March 2009 at the latest will be pardoned from interest penalties and tax audits related to tax returns.

The Sunset Policy also releases individual and corporate taxpayers that are already registered from administrative penalties if they correct their annual tax returns for 2006 and previous years as long as the correction is made before the end of 2008.

Even though the policy grants only a limited tax amnesty, that, we reckon, is already sufficient to encourage individuals to register as taxpayers and micro, small and medium-scale enterprises to go legitimate.

Certainly big tax evaders who do not have the good faith to abide by our tax laws see the Sunset Policy as ineffective because what they really want is a one-shot amnesty for all their past tax evasion and debts, and then it will be business as usual.