The giant Asian economy is reportedly pushing harder to retrieve undeclared offshore money.

Indonesia, which earlier this year completed a tax amnesty programme, has taken another step to hunt down undisclosed assets held offshore. 

Political parties agreed to seek a parliamentary approval for a law that will give tax officials access to financial data held by other countries, according to a report by Bloomberg. 

A meeting of various political parties yesterday  agreed to seek the parliament approval to turn an emergency rule in lieu of law, known as perpu, into a law at a plenary session today Johnny G. Plate, a lawmaker and member of Commission XI, reportedly said. 

The law will fulfill a requirement for Indonesia to take part in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Automatic Exchange of Information framework.

The Asian nation has already signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement, or (MCAA), a legal commitment for Indonesian government to exchange financial information (currently) among 87 jurisdictions for tax purposes. Indonesia is expected to conduct the first reporting in 2018 (source: PricewaterhouseCoopers, March, 2017). Around the world, scores of jurisdictions are agreeing to exchange data, a process that, for example, spells the end of Swiss bank secrecy, for international purposes, next year.

The news wire report on the Indonesia parliamentary development said the new law will pave the way for the country to ramp up tax collection through more information on any assets parked in jurisdictions such as Singapore and Hong Kong. 

While a tax amnesty launched last year uncovered more than $360 billion, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati claims another 185 trillion rupiah in tax revenue could be unlocked under the AEOI framework. 

As reported in May, OCBC, the Singapore-listed group, launched onshore private banking in Indonesia through its 85 per cent-owned subsidiary, OCBC NISP.  Developments such as Indonesia's tax amnesty have prompted firms to reconfigure their booking centres. Indonesia’s tax amnesty has been a factor in how banks are having to re-think business models, figures in the Industry have told this news service. For example, executive search firm Huddleston Jones has explained how a number of banks’ Indonesia-focused operations have had to adjust. (See here.)