Dion Bisara – The government plans to conduct a nationwide census that could boost the number of tax-paying residents by more than 25 percent by 2013, in a bid to increase revenue after less than half of registered taxpayers submitted income statements last year.

"The goal is to get as many Indonesians as possible to pay taxes... there are still many people who do not pay taxes," Fuad Rahmany, the Finance Ministry's director general for tax, told reporters on Tuesday.

In 2010, of 20 million registered taxpayers, only 9 million submitted income statements.

The ministry forecasts registration – of individuals and corporations – to increase to 25 million in 2013 from 19.9 million in 2010. From January through May, the figure already rose 4.5 percent to 20.7 million, which consisted of 18.4 million individual taxpayers and 2.3 million companies.

In the first phase of the census, Fuad said, his officers would focus on companies.

With the data to be collected the tax office hopes to also be able to tax people in the so-called informal sector, such as street vendors. Under the plan, tax officers would visit businesses door-to-door and ask questions to determine whether tax obligations had been fulfilled.

Apart from boosting taxpayer registration, the census is also expected to help improve compliance with regard to tax report submission, Fuad said. He declined to say when the census would start, leaving that decision to the finance minister, Agus Martowardojo.

In the state budget for 2011, the government forecast collecting Rp 764 trillion ($89 billion) in taxes, excluding duties and excises. That figure represents an increase of 13 percent from last year's Rp 661.5 trillion collection.

Darussalam, a tax expert from the University of Indonesia, said that despite the tax office only having around 30,000 people at its disposal, he believed it was capable of conducting the census.

"Tax offices are regularly canvassing new taxpayers," Darussalam said. "Now they have decided to scale it up with a census."

He said he hoped that the census would lead to amnesties for tax violators and focus mainly on getting more people to pay taxes in the future.

After the government decided to waive penalties for those who opted to register in 2008, there was an increase of more than two million taxpayers in that year alone. Last year's government census put the country's population at 237 million.