Compulsory Voting In Indonesia, Why Not !

I just copy my article which has been published by Sindo Newspaper of Indonesia.
Please find it by clicking this link:

I realize that the idea is completely new for us, but it can be a breakthrough to overcome abstain vote in the election.

Regards…

Issues in Development Economics

Ass. Prof. Ligang Song, an ANU lecturer, has a view that development economics has evolving in this decade with a broader issues than ever. He argues that in the Past, development economics were dealt with growth and its sources, macro-stability, trade liberalization, poverty reduction and government intervention. Environmental issue, which is the popular topic due to increasing response of many countries, was a part of past issues.
Meanwhile, present issues in development economics consist of globalization and localization, environmental degradation, demo graphical change, food and water security and a new way of urbanization.
He suggests that in the future, development economics will deal with a mixed of governance and regulation in one side and management of human and natural resource in another side.
The Professor who regularly edits some issues in Economy of China convinces that interdisciplinary researches are needed, in line with Douglas North’s view. As North (1990 and 1997) contends, cultural beliefs are a basic determinant of institutional structure. Not economics, but psychology, sociology, political science, anthropology, law, and history must provide the answers regarding the origins of cultural beliefs and how they lead to institutional change and the formation of social capital over time.
Some people may disagree with Song’s view. But I remember Kevin Kelly’s statement as follows: “Science will continue to surprise us with what it discovers and creates; then it will astound us by devising new methods to surprises us.”

Project of 10,000 MW of Indonesian Electricity Company

PLN, the biggest electricity company owned by Indonesian Government has many faces. This company still in loses since the government always keep the tariff on political decision, mismanagement inside the organization, oil-price pressure and also unfair tax treatment due to its consumptions. To restructure PLN, the government should formulate better policy.

One of most important things to restructure PLN is how to give the fair tax treatment. The following article has described the tax problem that faced by PLN. pln-tax-problem.pdf

This article has been published in Kontan, Daily Newspaper from Kelompok Kompas Gramedia, the leading group of media In Indonesia, October 3rd 2007.

To Propose Economic Diplomacy

Different situations would need different paradigms. This statement should be stressed in Indonesian’s foreign policy that now faces new situations. In order to fill the independence and development era, the government should think of how to raise the fund which needed when domestic resources could not fulfill the needs.

In this context, I would like to propose a comprehensive economic diplomacy in terms of Indonesian’s foreign policy to support our national economic development. This proposal would not neglect the importance of current foreign policy which has been directed to support trade liberalization, but otherwise to give a complete and comprehensive one. Therefore, I acknowledge the role of current Finance Attache that has been succesfully promote Indonesian Trade Policy. But I think it’s not enough and too narrow in interpreting our national needs in economic area.

In the near period I hope that the Indonesian Government could complete every economic diplomats with a good understanding about national development, investment opportunities, fundamental economic, development of both financial and real sector, etc.

In this line, our economic diplomats which mostly played by Financial Attache should take a pro-active position to explain Indonesian National Development and its results, fiscal situations and other fundamental issues. It would not only deal with governmental sector but include private sector which have given substantial contributions in economic development. It will different compared to the current situation that Financial Attache has spent almost all of their activities in customs area. Yet this approach needed to support trade liberalization, it has no significant contribution in attracting capital and investments.

If this proposal can be directed effectively, I’m sure that we will get a substanstial increased amounts of direct investment. We will also easily sell our global/sovereign bond from governmental sector as well as our national companies.

To play this new approach, we need many people which have specialization and good understanding about fiscal policy and economic development. And I hope that I will be one of new Financial Attache to give model for this new paradigm.

Fiscal Gap

Refer to some text books, the fiscal gap measures whether current fiscal policy implies a budget that is close enough to balance to be sustainable over the long term. The fiscal gap represents the amount by which taxes would have to be raised, or spending cut, to keep the ratio of debt to GDP from rising forever. If it couldn’t be done, the debt amounts should be increased.

Therefore fiscal gap is the improvement in the fiscal balance that, if sustained in each year over the projection period, would imply a net debt to GDP ratio at the end of the period equal to its level at the beginning of the period.

The fiscal gap measures whether current fiscal policy implies a budget that is close enough to balance to be sustainable over the long term. The fiscal gap represents the amount by which taxes would have to be raised, or spending cut, to keep the ratio of debt to GDP from rising forever. If it couldn’t be done, the debt amounts should be increased.

Fiscal gap in Indonesia can be illustrated by these two presentation-slides.

fiscal-gap.ppt

Australian Treasury Internship

In July 23rd – August 11th 2007 I’ve followed some agendas in Revenue Forecasting Internship Program in the Australian Department of Treasury. I would like to take the materials I’ve earned to a report but It hasn’t finished yet.

But one most important lesson that I could conclude is that there are a needs for Indonesia to develop a transparency system which can disclose every relevant data for being used by relevant users without barriers. The very popular characteristic of developed countries is an openness of data and its access. This situation lead them easier in directing every phases of government processes.

The different situation happened in our country, Indonesia. Access to data is an expensive issue, even to the departments of the same office. Furthermore, the problems grew to the lack of data needed in our planning of national economy. Every efforts which intended for getting the data is viewed as an intervension to the data owner, give threats to the secret that unexplainable, and also – oh my God – disturb them in getting the money from manipulating the data.

In Australia, I visited some offices and brainstormed some issues with some key persons from Ministry of Finance (MOF), Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM), Australian Customs Office (ACO), Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australian Reserve Bank (ARB), etc.

I will disseminate my final report thru this blog.

So get in touch every day with me……

RUWETNYA URUSAN TAX RATIO

 

Penyampaian Nota Keuangan dan RAPBN 2008 seperti biasanya mengundang berbagai komentar dan kritik tajam kepada Pemerintah. Salah satu sasaran bulan-bulanan dalam Nota Keuangan dan RAPBN 2008 ini adalah besaran tax ratio yang dianggap tidak cukup dapat dipercaya, baik secara teknik kalkulasinya maupun kelayakannya sebagai suatu ukuran dari kinerja sistem perpajakan Indonesia.

Secara lengkap, tulisan ini dapat diakses dari dokumen pdf berikut:

ruwet-tax-ratio.pdf

This article had been published in Seputar Indonesia SINDO Newspaper, September 4th 2007, and also can be read in Fiscal Policy Office’s website (http://www.fiscal.depkeu.go.id)

EVALUASI KINERJA SISTEM PERPAJAKAN INDONESIA

Apa yang telah dicapai oleh Sistem Perpajakan Indonesia ?

Bagaimana masalah-masalah yang timbul dalam pengembangan sistem perpajakan Indonesia ?

Artikel ini pernah dipublikasi dalam Jurnal Ekonomi Universitas INDONUSA Esa Unggul Volume 10 No. 2 November 2005. Artikel ini juga dipublikasikan oleh the Indonesia Economic Intelligence (IEI) dalam website-nya.

Anda bisa klik dokumen pdf berikut:

jurnal-ekonomi-indonusa.pdf

Controversy of Accelerated VAT-Refund

This article which has been published in Kontan Weekly Newspaper No. 11, XI Edition, 2006, December 27th 2006 talked about controversy of accelerated VAT-Refund. Unfortunately this article was delivered in Bahasa.

accelerated-vat-refund.pdf