Tax, Regulations, and Entrepreneurship
The hot topic in Bisnis Indonesia for the last two days was about the new government regulations about tax, still in draft phase currently but it will be legalized anyday now by our parliament. Of course the chamber of commerce of Indonesia (KADIN), is very resilient about this. More tax means less net income for their stock holder, and even lesser income for the company.
This policy will be enforced not so long after the subsidy relief of gasoline by the government, that and the news that effective next year, our tax office will ‘hunt down’ any tax-eligible citizen to pay the tax or serve their time in jail.
This might seem a little gloomy for Indonesian business environment, it’s like “Sudah jatuh tertimpa tangga”, a very famous Indonesian proverb that tells you about double misfortune on your side. However, the way I see it as a businessperson, not an economist, not a humanist, this is actually a good omen.
I mean, sure the business climate is harder than ever, especially with the tightening policy of the taxable income, sure the business climate is a little non-condusive after the gasoline price hike, sure that somehow Indonesian beauracracy is one of the worst in the world (I think it can only be competed with Italy’s beauracracy), but amongst all of that event, it will only make our business (and therefore business sense) stronger.
Let’s rewind back our memory to the 1998 events where many big business collaps due to the skyrocketing of currency exchange between dollars and rupiah. Most of the reasons of the “collaps dominoe” is because most of the corporatocracy relied heavily on government interference of the previous regime. Not to mention that most of their capital structure heavily based on leverage (debt). Collaps is inevitable when the currency fluctuates like madman.
There are of course jewels of the business that can survive the impact of the crisis. Most of those businesses are small business. Relied heavily on their own resources rather than nepotism with despot in power. That made them stronger. That made them able to coup with uncertainties. And that, my friend, is what I hope will be the out come of recent happenings.
Those will only make us stronger, and shall the most creative (not the strongest) survive.
tax, dari dulu saya blum faham. Trutama di INDONESIA :) aneh dan kurang FAIR (nurut saya)