indonesian tax office launches smart card for multi function purposes

Indonesian Tax Office on Friday (31/03) launched a new platform to pay tax developed by an in-house team at the Directorate General of Taxes that will include a smart card to store taxpayers' details.

"At the moment we have to deal with taxpayers who often carry several different identification cards, making it especially hard for us to be consistent," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said at the launch of the new platform.

The new system, to be called Kartin1, will allow various information — from ID card number, tax number, passport details to health insurance details — to be stored in a card which can be read using a near field communication add-on.

A prototype of the card will be made available to the public in July. Initially, the tax office will manage the system while BPJS Ketenagakerjaan will issue the card.