Final notes
It is not my objective to cry “Wolf!” here, and even less so to sound an alarm. I subscribe to the notion that our economy is fundamentally sound and in general well-managed. However, we should not be complacent; that is all I would like to say. I feel bad about harping on the subject, but it is true that in the past Indonesia’s tax ratio was not this poor. In the Nineteen-nineties, Indonesia’s tax ratios was close to 16 per cent. Can’t we at least aim at that level? Of course, government revenues from taxes cannot be improved easily from sales or other indirect taxes, but they can certainly be bolstered by income tax. I am sure this is not just a fairy tale when someone argues that there is a “tax mafia” that drains away revenue, causing major losses of tax es to the state. The message I wanted to sound when I wrote a column in this paper some weeks back on tax avoidance was intended to inspire an increase in the tax ratio. Let us hope that this can someday materialize.