Agriculture census has no link to taxes

Agriculture census has no link to taxes

JAKARTA (JP): The municipal Statistics Bureau is busy assuring
the public that the data gathered during the upcoming agriculture
census will not be linked to property taxes.

The head of the bureau, Poniman Suhartono, said yesterday
the census, to be held in October, will focus strictly on
agricultural companies and other related issues, not taxes.

Poniman urged the public to be cooperative in the census by
giving correct, reasonable and straightforward data.

"The confidentiality of your answers is protected by the 1960
state law on census," Poniman said.

Sukayat Darmo Suwito of the Central Bureau of Statistics said
earlier that the questions to be asked in the census will address
staff size, the quantity and kind of fertilizers and medicines
used, where the products are marketed and finances.

Follow-up

The census is to be done in follow-up to a similar one
administered last October, whose results were presented last
month to the representatives of the city's agricultural companies
at the Kemayoran Trade Mart building, Central Jakarta.

During the presentation of the results of the agricultural
census held last year, Ery Chayaridipura, the Head of the City
Development Planning Agency concurred with Poniman on the need to
help census officers do their jobs.

Poniman said that although the agricultural sector contributes
less than one percent (0.7 percent) of the capital's total gross
revenue from the business sector, accurate data on this sector is
compulsory to completing the national census data.

He added that his bureau had trained 200 officers for the
agricultural census.

The officers will collect data from agricultural companies,
such as horticulture firms, the raisers of freshwater, as well as
ocean fish, and cattle ranches.

Poniman said slaughterhouses, fish auction houses and cold
storage facilities are also targets of the census. (arf)