Indonesian Fintech Association (Aftech) has a big hope that the government could make the digital economic tax plan in a deliberative way and transparently. (Image credit: Forbes)

Indonesia Fintech Association: We expect digital economy tax will transparent

Faradita Prayusti
Politics & Economic
Regulation
Jul 10, 2019
1576
Indonesian Fintech Association (Aftech) has a big hope that the government could make the digital economic tax plan in a deliberative way and transparently.

On Tuesday, the Daily Chair of Aftech, Mery Simorangkir said to ANTARA that the association wanted all policies related to government proposal on tax for digital economy could be formed transparent and after having discussions with the private sector.

Previously, Sri Mulyani, Indonesia’s Minister of Finance announced a plan to gather taxes from digital economic transactions to raise state incomes, which had not been effectively done. The revenue tax rates from digital economic will the same as conventional purchasing and selling transactions, said the ministry.

According to the applicable laws and regulations, all economic activities in the country should be taxed, Minister Sri Mulyani emphasized. However, tax collection procedure would be different since not all the Permanent Business Entity (BUT) engaged in digital economic sector have representatives in Indonesia.

Aftech as a forum for companies and organization in the financial services industry that use technology in running their businesses viewed that the imposing taxes on digital business will not be a burden to the development of digital economy in Indonesia.

Aftech Daily Chair said the association would support government’s program and attempts to formalize business schemes and innovations that have appeared in the digital economy.

The tax transparency could be done from sales information, ads and other data.

Digital transactions in Indonesia is growing fast and the growth of the country’s digital economy industry was the highest in Southeast Asia countries, according to Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf). The total amount of digital transaction in 2017 touched US$8 million, of which US$5 million were coming from Indonesia’s marketplace platforms such as Tokopedia and Bukalapak.

In 2018 during the 32nd ASEAN Summit in Singapore, Indonesia has been highlighted digital economy issues, particularly on e-commerce transactions’ tax and custom tariffs.

As the number of digital economy players increase, Indonesia also called for all ASEAN members to provide an equal playing field for both conventional sellers and digital merchants.

Source: https://en.antaranews.com/news/128661/aftech-hopes-digital-economy-tax-implemented-transparently

Fintech , Tax , Digital , Economy , Regulation , E-commerce