JAKARTA: The Finance Ministry’s taxation directorate general said those who evaded paying their taxes would be kept behind bars until they paid their debts. The office, however, did not release their names.
Initially, the tax office planned to send 31 tax evaders to jail. The 31 tax evaders have debts amounting to no less than Rp 100 million (US$7,400) each and while they have the means to pay they showed no intention to do so, according the directorate.
The 31 tax debtors were carefully picked and assessed from about 15,000 tax evaders who are being monitored by the directorate.
“We plan to detain 31 tax evaders who are spread all over the country, by the end of this year,” the directorate announced on its website recently.
Out of the 31 debtors, 29 names were submitted to the Finance Ministry in June. The ministry returned 23 names, with debts worth a total of Rp 44.23 billion. When the debtors began their imprisonment, however, was pending consultation from related parties such as the local administration and the court, the directorate said.
Of the 29 names submitted, only three individuals were named while the remainder was institutions. For institutions, the directorate is targeting persons in charge of making decisions or who have authority to issue policies.
Commissioners and shareholders fall into the category of those in charge of a company’s tax debts, according to the directorate.
The directorate said that the debtors would be jailed separately from other inmates to keep them safe.
“Besides working with the police, we will also work with medical officers to make sure they are in good health while they serve time,” the directorate said.
According to Law No. 19/2000 on tax collection by force, debtors can be jailed for up to nine months, however their imprisonments can be extended another six months if they fail to pay their debts.
The directorate, however, said that jailing tax evaders would be a last resort. It hopes taxpayers will voluntarily pay their taxes before tough measures are taken against them.
“The directorate doesn’t expect debt settlement through hostages,” it said.
Taking individuals hostage for tax debt is not a new practice in the country as the legal grounds for it have existed since the 1960s and were reinforced in the 2000s.
The ministry will be going all-out to collect taxes this year as lower state revenues could hinder President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s development programs that focus on infrastructure, maritime and agriculture sectors and are expected to bolster growth by 7 percent during his term from the current 5 percent.
Travel bans will also be enforced to prevent tax evaders from leaving the country.
The tax office has cooperated with immigration to ban 479 institutional taxpayers and 89 individual taxpayers from flying overseas, the majority of whom are Indonesians while the rest are foreigners from countries in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.
