The number of taxpayers stood at 14.1 million in May, a jump from 10.6 million at the end of 2008, indicating an increasing awareness of people to pay tax, according to the tax office.That's an increase of 33%!
The tax office has provided incentive and disincentives to taxpayers in order to attract new taxpayers, tax office chief Darmin Nasution said Monday.
I do not really see the point of the debate over neoliberalism.
The critics seem to suggest that market liberalization, privatization and deregulation are evil. The proponents, on the other hand, if this subhuman species exists, glorify them as the miraculous policies that cure all the economic ills of the world.
The truth is, of course, as always, more complicated than this kind of caricatures. It is true that market liberalization, for example, may wreak havoc a market. But, done right, it can do wonders. Just look at what happen to airfares in the past decade; or, how easy you change your wireless phone provider just because you do not like the color of the recent poster of your current carrier.
I think it would be better if the presidential candidates’ economists stop this amateurish philosophical bickering. Instead, they should start talking about real problems that matter to real people, like how to help small coffee farmers help themselves, or how to expedite the process of setting up a firm.
I am not a political analyst; so, I do not know whether this move would win more votes. But, the last time I checked, most Indonesians are either small farmers or workers in informal sectors.
Their sheer numbers – these are, I think, reasons enough to talk to them.
I wonder why the IMF raises Indonesia's 2009 economic growth forecast from 2.5% to 3-4%.
So, I look at the latest BPS Press Release on Indonesia's economy, and find that the economy grows by 4.4% in the first quarter. Unsurprisingly, Government Expenditure has been growing by almost 20% during this election season, which helps boosting growth. But, Private Consumption is also going strong, expanding almost 6% in the first quarter. 
Indonesia's Economic Growth (First Quarter 2009)
Despite the 24% fall in imports. Pretty impressive!The economy grew at a lesser rate in the first quarter of 2008, compared to in last year's fourth quarter, on a slower growth in investment and consumption amid rising inflation and a global economic slowdown, Bank Indonesia (BI) said Monday.A growth rate of 6.1 percent is pretty good, I would say.
In its quarterly assessment, BI estimated the economy had grown 6.1 percent in the first three months of 2008, lower than the government's estimate of between 6.2 and 6.3 percent.
"[Asian] Rice laws and regulations are going in the wrong direction. It takes one back to the British Corn Laws," says [Steve] Hanke.That's Steve Hanke of the University of Baltimore
"These mandated the virtually complete government regulation of British agriculture at the start of the nineteenth century.
"Fortunately, that yoke was removed in 1846. Thanks to the efforts of Richard Cobden, John Bright and the Anti-Corn Law League, the Corn Laws were repealed.
"This resulted in the promotion of free trade, the importation of cheap food and a major surge in British standards of living.
"What rice needs today isn’t more government meddling but a modern version of the Anti-Corn Law League."
