Govt to give tax incentives to companies willing to go public

SURABAYA (Antara): Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said here on Saturday the government would give tax incentives to companies that would go public.

"We will give them tax incentives. Taxes payable by companies that go public will be lower than those of companies that do not," she said at a business gathering held to mark the 30th anniversary of Indonesia's capital market.

She said the capital market would be alive if there were investors and companies who were listed in the stock exchange.

Therefore, she called on companies that had so far not yet taken the advantage of the capital market as an alternative source of capital to go public.

She said the growth of the capital market would have a positive impact on the national economy.

She admitted the number of companies that were listed in the Jakarta Stock Exchange was still relatively small in view of their potentials.

The president director of the Jakarta Stock Exchange, Erry Firmansyah, meanwhile said the number of companies listed in the exchange now was only 346.

The minister said, beside banks, the capital market was one of the pillars of the economy. (**)