Anton Hermansyah, Jakarta – The House of Representatives approved into law on Thursday Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) 1/2017 on financial information, which allows tax officials to access bank accounts.

The law is the legal basis for Indonesia to follow the OECD initiated Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) in 2018.

"The approval of the Perppu into law will give confidence to the world that Indonesia is ready to follow the AEOI in 2018," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said during the House's plenary meeting.

An article in the Perppu on the punishment for tax officials who leak taxpayer information was removed from the law because of disagreement in the previous deliberation by the Commission XI overseeing financial affairs.

Most lawmakers wanted the jail term to be at least five years, similar to the punishment in the Tax Amnesty Law, instead of one year as stipulated in the Perppu.

Sri Mulyani said the punishment would be discussed during the deliberation of the General Taxation Provision Law revision, which has already been included in the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas). (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/07/27/house-approves-financial-disclosure-law.html