JAKARTA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia will provide more business sectors with tax breaks to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, officials said on Friday.
Indonesia has to be prepared for the grim outlook of the global economy caused by the pandemic, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said.
All the international organizations have significantly revised down the global economic projections as the virus keeps spreading rapidly, she said.
"This is a huge shock. We cannot ignore this. Its impact is big on our economy," Indrawati told an online press conference.
The country's tax revenues shrank by 2.5 percent in the first quarter on the yearly basis, she added.
The decline occurred both in the oil and gas sector, and the non-oil and gas sectors, she said, citing that the grim global economic condition due to the pandemic would lead to lower tax revenues this year.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry's Tax Director General Suryo Utomo said the tax deduction in Indonesia currently provided only to the manufacturing will be expanded to other 11 sectors including mining, plantation, transportation, telecommunications, trade, logistics, construction and tourism.
The tax breaks included the transient exclusion of income tax on wages of employees, deduction of corporate tax installment and suspension of import duties, Utomo added.
Indonesia has estimated that the national development budget deficit would widen to 5.07 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) this year amid intensive stimulus packages to respond to the pandemic.
The Indonesian Health Ministry has so far recorded 520 fatalities of the COVID-19 and 5,923 infections across the country. Enditem
