In an Instagram posting early this morning, Nazir congratulated the Jokowi administration for their success in being able to get billions of US dollars in assets back to Indonesia.

“Congrats to the Jokowi administration – phenomenal result for the tax amnesty. Already US$280 billion in newly-declared assets and revenue exceeding forecast. Bullish Indonesia again,” Nazir, who is the youngest brother to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, wrote on his social media account.

Last Saturday, Reuters reported Indonesia’s Finance Ministry as declaring that the first phase of Indonesia’s tax amnesty programme had ended with 97.2 trillion rupiah (RM31 billion) in revenue repatriated into the country over a three-month period, to help cover the government’s fiscal deficit.

The ministry’s website also showed that some 366,757 taxpayers, including some of the wealthiest individuals in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, had signed up for the first phase that started on July 1 this year, and ended on Sept 30 (last Friday).

The taxpayers had also declared assets worth a total of 3,620 trillion rupiah (RM1.15 trillion), with a pledge to repatriate 137 trillion rupiah (RM43 billion) worth of assets back to Indonesia, according to the ministry.

The first phase of the tax amnesty programme by Indonesia provided a way for its citizens to declare previously unreported assets overseas and repatriate funds held in foreign banks, at the lowest penalty rate of two per cent.

The penalty rate goes up by another one to two percentage points from Oct 1 until Dec 31 this year in its second phase, and will rise further on Jan 1, for the amnesty’s third and final phase, which ends on March 31, 2017.