Three students from Universitas Indonesia (UI) won Third Place in the Fantaxtis match at the 2024 SMARTAX competition. They consist of Romario Hadamean Azka Harahap, Joshua Steven Bathry Hutagalung, and Muhammad Reza Nursabaryansyah who are students of the Tax Administration Study Program, Vocational Education Program.
SMARTAX 2024, which carries the theme “Strategi Gasak (Generasi Sadar Pajak) dalam Mewujudkan Sustainability Development Goals 2030” is a platform that provides an opportunity for students to play an active role as agents of change in realizing various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 through participation in the competition.
Deputy Director for Education, Research, and Student Affairs, Deni Danial Kesa, Ph.D, said that the achievements achieved by Joshua and his team are proof that UI Vocational students have high competence and fighting spirit in facing challenges in the academic and professional world. “Their success in the SMARTAX Fantaxtis 2024 competition not only made UI proud, but also showed the great potential of Indonesia’s young generation in contributing to the achievement of the 2030 SDGs,” said Deni.
UI Vocational students who are members of the Geblek Renteng Team managed to show brilliant performance during the competition. When the participants who qualified for the final round were announced, Joshua and his team were in second place out of six teams that advanced to the final round. The Fantaxtis match branch consists of three rounds, namely the initial round in the form of multiple choice questions, the semifinal round in the form of case studies, and the final round which is divided into two phases, namely fast and precise, and debate.
“After successfully advancing to the final round, we were faced with a debate round with the motion ‘Arah Kebijakan Pemerintah yang Berfokus pada PPN dibanding PPh’ (Government Policy Direction Focusing on VAT compared to Income Tax) and got a pro-position on the motion. We strive to give our best through the opinions and data that we researched during the debate,” said Joshua. He also added that the team studied all materials (all taxes) with a proportional division to make the material load more efficient.
The competition organized by the Tax Community of the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Pekalongan, was held from May to July 2024 and was attended by 36 teams from various universities in Indonesia. This activity aims to provide an understanding of tax awareness for the younger generation in realizing the 2030 SDGs. Various competitions were held, including posters, tax video challenges, articles, and Fantaxtis.
The SMARTAX 2024 activity was closed with a tax seminar as well as the announcement of various competitions, including the achievements of UI Vocational students. “We are very happy to be able to represent UI in a national competition like this. In the future, we will continue to strive to make our alma mater proud and excel, especially in the field of taxation,” said Joshua.
