VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia's tax receipts fell 19.7 percent to Rp1,070 trillion in 2020 from Rp1,332.7 trillion in 2019 due to the economic contraction and provision of tax incentives to COVID-19 affected citizens, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said.

"This caused several revenues to have been foregone or to be borne by the government because it is aimed at providing room to the public," she said at an online press conference on the realization of the 2020 state budget here on Wednesday.

The tax receipts of Rp1,070 trillion represented 89.3 percent of the target of Rp1,198.8 trillion set under Presidential Regulation No. 72 of 2020, she informed.

All types of tax receipts from oil and gas as well as non-oil/non-gas sectors recorded a contraction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.

Income tax receipts from oil and gas in 2020 reached Rp33.2 trillion, a decline of 43.9 percent compared to Rp59.2 trillion a year earlier.

Meanwhile, non oil/non-gas tax receipts contracted 18.6 percent to Rp1,036.8 trillion from Rp1,273.5 trillion in the year-ago period.

The pandemic also posed a special challenge for the Directorate General of Taxation since 22 tax officers died of the infection. In total, 39 employees within the Finance Ministry died of COVID-19.

So far, the Finance Ministry has reported 1,171 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

"Under this current situation, the tasks of tax officers to maintain state revenues are very challenging," Indrawati remarked. (antaranews)

Muhammadiyah Secretary General Abdul Mu'ti urged Indonesia's government to maintain public justice and fairness in enforcing law against mass organizations by not solely demonstrating its tough and unbending opposition to the Islam Defenders Front (FPI).

"Enforce law and justice upon all," Mu'ti noted in his Instagram direct message in Jakarta on Thursday while speaking in connection with the government's decision to ban FPI's activities in any form.

The government must adopt a fair approach because if it bans all activities of FPI owing to the absence or expiry of its organizational registration permit, the organization has automatically become non-existent or illegal.

"Hence, the government need not dissolve (the FPI) because it has legally got dissolved automatically," he explained.

Most importantly, the government has acted fairly.  

"Do not just be tough with the FPI but also with other mass organizations that have no organizational registration permits or whose activities cause public disruption are still allowed to exist," he stated.

The government's ban on the organization that had existed since August 17, 1998, was, however, criticized by Rocky Gerung, a popular philosopher and political analyst, in his talk show with Hersubeno Arief from Forum News Network (FNN) on Thursday.

Gerung asserted that the decision to ban FPI had disrupted the people's common sense in democracy since banning an organization runs counter to the democratic principles of freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.

"In a legal construction, what is banned is related to acts of crime. However, how can goodness be banned?" he stated during the talk show broadcast on his official YouTube channel.

The government's ban on all FPI activities can also potentially create confusion on the ground when its members were keen to assist those in their neighborhood area that are direly affected by a natural disaster, Gerung remarked.

Since FPI has officially been declared "unlawful" and its activities banned, the FPI members are no longer able to assist, for instance, those reeling from the impacts of flooding, he remarked.

"This does not make sense," he affirmed.

Prior to its official dissolution, the FPI had partaken in disaster mitigation efforts in various parts of Indonesia, including during Aceh's deadly tsunami in 2004 and Palu's deadly earthquake in 2018.

On Wednesday, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD stated that the government had imposed a ban on activities of the FPI in any form.

Mahfud remarked that the FPI had been de jure dissolved as a mass organization since June 20, 2019. However, as an organization, the FPI has continued to conduct its activities by violating public law and order, including by committing violent acts, conducting unilateral sweeping raids, and being instrumental in provocation.

Based on the legislation and decision of the Constitutional Court, dated December 23, 2014, the government has banned FPI's activities and will stop all its activities, he stated.

"If there is organization claiming to be FPI, it will be considered as being non-existent and must be rejected as of today," he affirmed.

Mahfud explained that the ban was also based on a joint decision of Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, Communication and Informatics Minister Jhonny G. Plate, Attorney General Burhanuddin, and Chief of the National Police General Idham Azis and Chief of the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), Commissioner General Boy Rafly Amar.

National Defense Forces (TNI) Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, Laoly, Karnavian, Chief of Presidential Staff Moeldoko, Burhanuddin, Plate, Azis, and Chief of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) Budi Gunawan were also present at the event. (antaranews)

The provincial administration of Jakarta cautioned residents and business owners against holding New Year's Eve celebrations on Thursday evening to halt transmission of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that has acutely threatened Indonesia's public health and economy.

"Starting from 7 p.m. local time, there will be no crowd-pulling activities. The Jakarta Metropolitan police have supported (this policy)," Jakarta's Deputy Governor, Ahmad Riza Patria, stated.

To ensure no New Year’s Eve celebrations organized by both communities and business entities in Jakarta, a joint team of security personnel has stepped up monitoring by conducting surveillance operations around the country's capital city, he remarked.

Conversing with journalists on the sidelines of his visit to the Pulogebang Integrated Bus Terminal in East Jakarta, the Jakarta deputy governor noted that the dispatched security personnel were recruited from the police, military, and city public order agency.

Patria reminded the capital city's residents of the Jakarta governor's instruction that all New Year’s Eve celebrations were banned amid the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.

"Unlike the previous years, the Jakarta provincial government does not convene year-ender events this year. There are no music concerts, fireworks, culinary fiesta, arts and cultural performances, and so on," he confirmed.

The government has also ordered those operating hotels, restaurants, cafes, tourist sites, and other business places to not hold the New Year’s Eve celebrations, he stated.

"Please do not undermine this policy. If they have been warned of closing their businesses this evening, but they ignore the warning, we are going to crack down on them. Revoking their business permits is also possible," he stated.

The joint team of security personnel will conduct increased surveillance operations at all locations in the city, including several points on MH Thamrin and Sudirman road sections, frequently visited by crowds of people, he noted.

The Indonesian government's COVID-19 Task Force revealed that the number of COVID-19 cases in the country increased drastically between November and December, including active cases that jumped by 55 percent in a single month.

The first COVID-19 infections in Indonesia were reported on March 2 this year.

As of December 28, 2020, Indonesia had recorded a total of 719,219 COVID-19 cases, 589,978 recoveries, and 21,452 fatalities, while on December 30, 2020, Jakarta reportedly contributed the highest number of fresh cases at 2,053.

To help win the fight against the pandemic, which has posed a grave threat to public health and economy, the Indonesian government has consistently expressed confidence in the potential of the COVID-19 vaccine. (antaranews)

The Indonesian government and the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) inked the Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) worth US$150 million for the 2021-2025 period to promote welfare of Indonesian children.

The CPAP aims to support the development of children in various fields, including health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, child protection, and social policy.

"The government warmly welcomes the continuation of the cooperation program with Unicef that significantly contributes to achieving national priorities, particularly those related to children. The cooperation program will continue to produce various innovations that may serve as a leverage to speed up the attainment of development targets," Minister/Chief of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Suharso Monoarfa noted in a written statement released on Thursday.

The program is the commitment to realizing children's rights within the framework of implementing one of the visions of the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024 to promote the development of human resources by 2024.

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The Indonesia-Unicef cooperation aims to assist the Indonesian government in achieving the main goal pertaining to children's welfare that is to immediately reduce the stunting rate to 14 percent among those under the age of five years and double the number of households using clean water to reach 15 percent.

The other objective is to reduce the infant mortality rate by up to one-third, from 24 to 16 deaths per one thousand live births; achieve full immunization of up to 90 percent of the children aged 12 to 23; raise participation in early childhood education, from 63 percent to 72 percent; and adopt innovations to increase access to education and learning for the most-marginalized children.

The next step is to increase the coverage of health, social, or law enforcement services among boys and girls that once endured violence, from 10 percent to 20 percent, and lower the number of children living in poverty based on the national monetary poverty line, from 11.8 percent to nine percent.

The cooperation program will also focus on cross-sectoral programs encompassing the development and participation of youths and various requirements and priorities for women and children with disabilities, he stated.

The strategic partnership will help Indonesian boys and girls to realize their potential and ensure that none of them will lag behind their other counterparts. (antaranews)