Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – While it is everyone's right to apply for the government's tax amnesty, the participation of state officials in a program specifically designed to convince top businesspeople to declare their hidden wealth and repatriate their money from overseas has come as a surprise.
Through the tax amnesty program, any figures who previously never paid tax on undeclared assets can now declare their wealth and pay much lower fees without fear of being prosecuted.
While the program is open for any individuals or companies, it is surprising to see that Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengku Buwono X has also applied for the tax amnesty because it could create the impression that the sultan has not declared all his wealth and, therefore, has not paid all his taxes.
Yogyakarta Non-Governmental Organization Forum chairman Beny Susanto said he was skeptical that the sultan's act of not declaring all his assets was unintentional. He said he did not believe that a state official like the sultan would simply forget to declare some of his wealth.
Beny said such negligence deserved punishment. "The tax amnesty program reveals that there are many public officials who did not pay taxes on their wealth, while the people are continuously being forced to pay taxes, excises and various kinds of fees," he said.
Beny was commenting on the sultan who on Wednesday declared some of his wealth to the Yogyakarta tax office that had not been declared in his annual tax returns.
Yogyakarta tax office head Yuli Kristiyono said he met the sultan on Wednesday to receive the tax amnesty documents.
Yuli, however, declined to reveal the extent of the sultan's wealth, nor the amount of fees that he had to pay for his previously undeclared assets. "According to Law No. 11/2016 on the tax amnesty, we are obliged to keep information about that a secret," Yuli said on Wednesday.
Beside the Yogyakarta governor, all four regents and one mayor in the province, as well as some other members of Yogyakarta's royal family, also applied for the tax amnesty.
Yuli brushed aside speculation that the officials had intentionally evaded paying taxes by not declaring all their assets, saying such an oversight was common.
The meeting between Yuli and the sultan lasted for about one and a half hours, but the sultan himself was reluctant to meet with the press afterwards.
Yuli said that as of Wednesday, 4,352 formerly reluctant taxpayers had participated in the tax amnesty in Yogyakarta since the program was implemented on July 1. The total value of fees paid amounted to Rp 351.8 billion (US$27.08 million).
"The new wealth reported amounts to Rp 16.6 trillion. We will use this as the potential for tax payments in the future," Yuli said.
The first period of the tax amnesty program ran from July to September. The second period is to run from October to December. Yuli said his agency would disseminate information about the program to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the province.