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Nazir praises Indonesia after undeclared billions return from S'pore
Published:  Oct 5, 2016 12:51 PM
Updated: 7:03 AM

CIMB chairperson Nazir Razak today heaped praise on the Indonesia government for succeeding to retrieve billions of US dollars of tax revenue, through its tax amnesty programme.

"Phenomenal results for the tax amnesty...Bullish Indonesia again," he said, congratulating the Joko Widodo administration on Instagram.

Some US$10.5 billion have been repatriated to Indonesia following the tax amnesty move, the Indonesian tax office said.

It estimates US$273 billion previously undeclared assets belonging to Indonesians stashed overseas.

Indonesia's gains from the tax amnesty programme far eclipses other countries which have offered similar programmes.

The Indonesian policy victory, however, puts Singapore in an uncomfortable spot as 57 percent of the amount collected came from Singapore, Indonesia's tax office reportedly said.

This refocuses attention to the city-state which is struggling to safeguard its reputation for good governance following the 1MDB fallout, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore in July said the 1MDB case was "a dent in our reputation as a clean and trusted financial centre".

The Singapore regulator in May shut down Swiss bank BSI Bank over "serious breaches of anti-money laundering requirements, poor management oversight of the bank's operations, and gross misconduct by some of the bank's staff", to do with 1MDB.

 Washington DC-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI) study last year found that Malaysia was among the top five countries in the world in terms of total illicit financial outflow.

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