The Finance Ministry estimated this year’s tax revenue to reach 15.3 percent (yoy), or Rp1,784 trillion, in line with the recovery and increase in commodity prices.

Head of the fiscal policy agency at the Finance Ministry Febrio Kacaribu remarked that the projection surpassed the tax revenue target set at Rp1,510 trillion in the 2022 State Budget.

“We have made a very strategic decision for 2022 at 15.3 percent, and we are still in the mitigating conditions that we face,” Kacaribu stated at the House of Representatives’ Financing Agency here on Monday.

Kacaribu remarked that the Rp1,784 trillion included customs and excise revenues of Rp299 trillion, which exceeded the state budget target of Rp245 trillion. It also included tax revenues of Rp1,485 trillion, which had been higher than the state budget target of Rp1,265 trillion.

The projected tax revenue growth of 15.3 percent surpassed that during the pre-pandemic situation, which had averaged 6.5 percent during the period from 2017 to 2019.

On the other hand, revenue in 2020 had fallen by 16.9 percent due to expediting countermeasures necessary to assist businesses in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

The situation got better in line with controlled COVID-19 cases and improvement in the vaccination rate in 2021, thereby driving the tax revenue to reach 20.4 percent.

As for this year, Indonesia still benefits from very high global commodity prices, or the commodity boom, as was apparent from the revenue, he stated.

However, the government remains cautious about the global uncertainties, both in terms of the monetary policy and the global trade system, he pointed out.

“Although Indonesia had to ban the export of several commodities, we managed to maintain the domestic supply, and now, exports have been (continued). In several countries, this practice is very common,” he concluded.

Source: Antara News