Mayor gets promises instead of money<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Disappointed with the city's poor tax revenue,
\nCentral Jakarta Mayor Andi Subur Abdullah led a team on Tuesday
\nvisiting companies notorious for not paying their land and
\nbuilding taxes.<\/p>\n
\"We sent notices to all the companies we visited today a week
\nago. But it seems they didn't take the matter seriously.<\/p>\n
\"I was really disappointed when I was told that the financial
\ndirector of a company had just gone home when we arrived,\" he
\ntold reporters.<\/p>\n
The mayor visited four companies in the Central Jakarta
\nbusiness district -- the Sahid Group hotel chain; the operators
\nof the Taman Ria Senayan recreational park, the Menteng Regency
\nand Marriott apartments; and the Senayan driving range management
\nfirm PT Adil Andaru.<\/p>\n
Sahid Group management, represented by its operational
\ndirector Haryono Hadikusumo, said the company would pay its tax
\nbill of Rp 968 million (US$138,285) soon after the post-fasting
\nIdul Fitri celebrations, estimated to fall on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9
\nnext year.<\/p>\n
The management of Menteng Regency and Marriott apartments, PT
\nDuta Buana Permai, which owe the city Rp 450 million, assigned a
\nmember of its legal team, Fransisca, to negotiate with the
\nmayoralty team. She asked for the bill to be delayed.<\/p>\n
The operator of the Taman Ria Senayan recreational park, the
\nRia Pembangunan Foundation, asked for a reduction amounting to Rp
\n1.857 billion.<\/p>\n
The foundation, established by wives of high-ranking active
\nand retired military officers, asked the team to obtain the tax
\nfrom the park's management, PT Ariobimo Laguna Perkasa.<\/p>\n
\"We are not purely in business, so we suggest the mayoralty
\nask for the tax payment from the park management,\" Lulu Lugiati,
\nthe wife of the former minister of defense Edi Sudradjat, said.<\/p>\n
The director of the Senayan driving range management company
\nPT Adil Andaru, Gatot Teguh Ariffianto, said the company had paid
\nRp 238 million of its 1998 land tax payment bill of Rp 450
\nmillion last July and would complete the rest by the end of this
\nmonth.<\/p>\n
\"Today we paid Rp 100 million and another Rp 112 million will
\nbe paid later this month,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said the company's 1999 land tax of Rp 560 million would
\nbe paid next March.<\/p>\n
Andi said that his office will monitor and examine the
\ntaxpayers complaints. \"We came not merely as debt collectors, but
\nalso to explain our intentions and to seek the companies'
\nclarification on this matter,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Andi warned the taxpayers that his office would take firm
\naction, including confiscating their property within 24 hours
\nafter a final notice, if they failed to pay their debts as
\npromised.<\/p>\n
Mayoralty data shows that from 1993 to 1994 at least 62,000
\ntaxpayers have not paid their land taxes. As of Dec. 1 unpaid
\ntaxes amounted to Rp 63 billion (US$9.4 million). (01)<\/p>",
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