Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

Government and law enforcers are urged to track down millions of financial documents of leaked Panama Papers from a Panama law firm.“The name of Chairman of National Auditing Agency is enlisted in the paper and he has not yet reported his wealth to the state,” said Director for Education and Public Service of the Anti-corruption Commission (KPK), Sujanarko, in the seminar titled Panama Papers: Tax Evasion, Money Laundering, Corruption and Effects on Indonesian Economy, held at Faculty of Economics and Business UGM on Friday (22/4).

There are documents in the form of 4.8 millions of emails involving as many 2,961 Indonesian people. In his opinion, the law enforcers and Tax Director General need to investigate this issue. “If domestically this is not investigated, then it would be very difficult if we ask for help from other countries,” he said.

He regretted if the Panama Papers which he said as having existed since 2006 are not investigated fully, other countries will be unwilling to offer help. Sujanarko acknowledged the truth of the data in the Panama Papers mentioning the tax evasion attempts made by Indonesian businessmen. For example, Tubagus Chaeri Wardana aka Wawan, one of suspected corrupters in the health equipment procurement of Tangerang Selatan. Wawan was arrested by the KPK for possesion of many luxury cars but only had to pay annual tax as little as three millions, even smaller than annual taxes for a small food vendor.

Dr. Bimo Wijayanto, member of staff of Presidential Office, said the data from Panama Papers need to be proved to be presented as evidence of tax evasion. He admitted the long process to do this, but this has to be done.

Bimo said currently there has no tax treaty between Indonesia and Panama. “We need to boost the tax treaty between Indonesia and Panama. What’s more possible is to examine through tax amnesty,” he said.

UGM economist, Dr. Rimawan Pradiptyo, said the existing Tax Law, Banking Law, and Corruption Law are left behind than those of other countries. When Panama Papers emerged, law enforcers seemed to be unable to do much, moreover that the financial crimes have been done abroad. “Law enforcers have to catch up with others, follow the pattern and new ways of the crimes being committed and then produce a preventive system,” he said.

Source: ugm.ac.id