DIRECTOR GENERAL: TAX THE BIGGEST CONTRIBUTION TO "DAU" FUND

Jambi, Jan 22 (ANTARA) - The Director General for Taxation, Darmin Nasution, said that a 26 percent tax was the biggest contribution to the general fund allocation (DAU) channeled to the regions.

"Therefore, I ask the regions to take various steps to increase their earnings from tax," he said when dedicating the 'Pratama' tax office in Jambi, on Thursday.
He admitted that there were some opinions that tax levies had nothing to do with the regions. The opinions were totally misleading and in fact 70 percent of the state budget was obtained from tax.
"It is true that tax levies are something disliked by many people, while development depends much on tax revenue," he said.
Tax offices in the regions were called on to provide good services to the community, or taxable citizens. Such transparent and good tax services will be able to improve public awareness to pay tax.
If the tax offices are able to create a confortable situation in the community, tax revenue could hopefully be enhanced as the tax payers will not be lazy to pay tax.
He further said that in 2008, tax revenue amounted to Rp571 trillion as the biggest state revenue in the country's taxation history or an increase of about 34 percent from last year's Rp435 trillion.