JAKARTA (Reuters) – The legislative body of Indonesia’s parliament has included a tax amnesty and patriot bond bills as priority legislation, lawmakers said on Friday, in a further step to generate more revenues to fund major government programmes.
Southeast Asia’s biggest economy carried out two tax amnesty programmes, in 2016 and 2022, which collectively uncovered more than $340 billion worth of unreported assets.
Taxpayers were offered lower-than-normal tax rates if they disclosed hidden assets, while authorities pledged to penalise those who did not participate.
The government at the time had promised not to hold further amnesties, but to improve tax compliance.
The tax amnesty bill had been on the priority list from the beginning and was not suddenly included, lawmaker Martin Manurung told Reuters, adding it and the patriot bond bill would still require a majority parliamentary vote at a later date before they become law.
The tax amnesty bill will be in the priority legislation list for 2025, while the patriot bond bill will be included in the 2026 list.
There were no further details on the two bills.
“We will conducted a parliamentary hearing first on the bill (patriot bond),” Bob Hasan, another lawmaker told Reuters.
Indonesia’s finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Prabowo Subianto, whose political party has an overwhelming majority in parliament, proposed 3,842.7 trillion rupiah($231.94 billion) budget for 2026, a 9% up from 2025, with key spending on free-meals for 83 million recipients and defence.
($1 = 16,568.0000 rupiah)
(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by Martin Petty and Shri Navaratnam)
