Indonesia special forces to toughen up tax collectors

Indonesian tax collectors will get three weeks of military physical training from the president's security forces in an effort to build up the muscles and moral fibre of an organisation seen as ineffective and corrupt. Indonesians were shocked last year by revelations of tax official Gayus Tambunan, who bribed his way out of jail while awaiting conviction for taking kickbacks to cut companies' taxes. "It is very important to build character," said Dedi Rudaedi, a spokesman at the tax office. "We have 32,000 employees and the majority want to make a change, they want the office to be cleaner." President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has made fighting graft a priority but progress has been slow and his own political party is mired in several corruption scandals, hurting his popularity and making corruption a major risk for investors. Tax collection is also low in Southeast Asia's largest economy, limiting state revenue and reducing the ability of the government to fund an overhaul of dilapidated infrastructure.