Indonesia uncover nearly US$600 milllion assets in 1st month
  of Tax Amnesty  

  Indonesia's second tax amnesty programme in the space of five years has unearthed nearly
  $600 million of unreported assets in its first month, official data showed,as some analysts warned against
  repeating such programmes too often. 

  President Joko Widodo launched the six-monthtax amnesty on Jan. 1, thoughdid not announce a
  target for asset declaration or revenue. 

  The programme allows participants of the president's first tax amnesty, held for nine months in 2016
  to 2017, to disclose any assets not declared in the first round. Taxpayers can also declare un-reported
  assets acquired between 2016 to 2020. 

  Authorities will regard declared assets as additional income and tax them at between 6% to 18%, far higher
  than penalty rates in the earlier amnesty. 

  The government described the first amnesty as one of the world's most successful after it uncovered
  more than $300 billion of assets, resulting in more than $9 billion in revenue from penalties. 

  Both amnesty programmes were aimed at improving compliance in a country where less than half of
  the workforce are registered taxpayers. 

  Official data showed 9,276 taxpayers joined the programme in January, declaring 8.47 trillion rupiah
  ($590.94 million) of assets and with 903 billion rupiah ofrevenue collected. 

  Wahyu Nuryanto, a partner at tax consultancy MUC Consulting, said while authorities had not set
  targets, the number of participants in January was less than 10% of the previous amnesty. 

  "I hope this programme can improve compliance, but this depends on, among other things, the
  government's commitment to never provide amnesties in the future," he said. 

  The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has previously advised
  Indonesia not to repeat tax amnesty programmes to avoid future evasion. 

  Bawono Kristiaji, a partner at tax firm Danny Darussalam Tax Centre, said the amnesty has been
  attractive for taxpayers, but urged the government to partner with other stakeholders to
  increase publicity. 

  Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told a news conference on Wednesday authorities would
  keep promoting the amnesty. 

  "We will also remind all taxpayers across Indonesia, individuals and companies, to improve
  compliance," she said. 

  Source: Reuters

  Omicron update: 3,780 total cases in Indonesia 

   According to data from GISAID, daily infection rates of the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant of COVID-19 has
  reached 3,780 cases as of Monday, February 7, 2022. That’s eight more cases compared to the previous
  day. In weekly terms, cases in Indonesia grew 107.92%. 

  The increase has scorely placed Indonesia on the top of the list of Southeast Asian countries with the
  most COVID-19 infections. Previously, the country with the highest number of infections in Southeast
  Asia was Thailand with 1,976 cases. 

  Singapore followed with 20.35% more Omicon cases compared to the previous week. The total number of
  infections in Singapore was 1,579, an increase compared to the previous week of 1,312 cases.
  The Phillipines saw 1,140 cases (an increase of 1,152.75%), Malaysia 652 (an increase of 17.06%) and
  Cambodia 257 cases, or an increase of 61.64% compared to the previous week,. 

  The report GISAID stated that the global total of Omicron cases has reached 1.02 million cases, a
  significant increase compared to the previous week of 699.13 thousand cases.  

  Source: Katadata