Jakarta. Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono, the chairman of Indonesian Justice and Unity Party, or PKPI, joined the tax amnesty program on Wednesday (21/09), putting him among the first politicians to publicly join the government's flagship program while urging other public officials to follow suit.

"I've been retired for dozens of years as a public officer and now I am a trader, but that doesn't mean only businessmen should join this program," Hendropriyono told reporters.

The former chief of the State Intelligence Agency said he had reported all of his personal wealth and company assets in the country and outside the country. Still, he said he might leave something behind and will rejoin the program if needed.

"Inventory takes time. I should familiarize with the regulation first and the study how to comply with it," he said, noting that currently he has companies in freight shipping and remittance industry.

According to Hendropriyono, most of his assets are located in Indonesia while his businesses are entirely located in the country.

"My wife needs to regularly have a chemotherapy session, that's why I keep a small amount of money abroad," he said.

Hendropriyono is not the only former public officer who joined the program. Previously, Muhammad Haniv, the directorate's head of the specials cases branch, said that many retired tax officers have done the same but they prefer to avoid the spotlight.

With the deadline for the cheapest tariff for coming clean about previously unreported assets coming closer at the end of September, many well-known tycoons, businesspersons and media moguls have begun to report their assets. Tommy Suharto, a politician from Golkar Party and youngest son of the late President Suharto, applied for amnesty last week.

The government expects to rake in Rp 165 trillion in additional tax revenue from the tax amnesty program, Rp 4,000 trillion in declared assets and Rp 1,000 trillion in repatriated assets.

The government has received Rp 30.3 trillion in tax as a result of the program as of Wednesday afternoon.

Taxpayers have declared Rp 1,273.5 trillion of unreported assets, which includes Rp 70.6 trillion worth of repatriated assets, Rp 338.9 trillion in offshore assets and Rp 864 trillion assets in the country.

A lion share of the offshore assets was in Singapore banks, officials said. The Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) has called Bank OCBC NISP, Bank UOB Indonesia and Bank DBS — three local units of Singaporean banking and financial groups — asking for their full support to tax amnesty program Irwan Lubis, deputy commissioner of banking supervision at OJK said in a statement on Wednesday (21/09).