Alleged tax evaders say they have paid government
Alleged tax evaders say they have paid government
JAKARTA (JP): Several purchasers of fictitious value-added tax
invoices have told a court that they had compensated the state's
losses.
"I have deposited compensation according to the amount I was
told I owe the government soon after the VAT invoices I have been
paying are said to have been problematic," Yasin Sunjaya, manager
of a shoe factory said when taking the witness stand on Tuesday.
He testified in the trial of two of four businessmen tried for
masterminding and establishing companies to publish bogus VAT
invoices, sold only at ten per cent of their face-value between
1993 to 1995.
The witness testified at the trial of Hartono and Raden Ign.
Suarisman. Two other defendants Baharrudin Umar and Tony Effendy
were tried in a separate room at the same court on Tuesday.
Yasin said the face value of purchased invoices was Rp 120
million but his factory has now paid the full, undisclosed,
amount asked by the government after he was reprimanded by the
Tax Directorate over the problematic VAT invoices.
Another buyer, Hermawan Tansil, said that his company has
partly compensated the offset due to the government.
"We have paid Rp 20 million out of the Rp 60 million we ought
to pay to the government," Hermawan, director of a printing
company, said.
Head of the Tebet Tax Service Office, Bambang Suronit, told
the Central Jakarta District Court that his office had issued a
notification urging customers of the fictitious invoices to pay
the government their due in missing tax revenue.
Warnings were issued following a tax audit conducted by the
Tax Directorate, which ordered territories' service offices to
investigate tax evasion detection.
Six companies within the Tebet territory in south Jakarta were
identified as problematic, having embezzled government money
Prosecutors claimed that the government lost Rp 58,3 billion
in tax revenues between 1993 and 1995 due to the dissemination
among entrepreneurs of tens of thousands of bogus VAT invoices .
Another witness Yolanda Kertayasa told the court that she had
collected seven per cent from the VAT supposedly collected by the
government by selling 26 invoices in a conspiracy with suspect
Tony Effendy.
"Tony said that he would deposit the full amount with the
government," Yolanda said, unable to answer judges' questions
regarding why she had consented to committing the crime in the
first place.
Entrepreneurs are entitled to collect the ten percent value-
added taxes when buyers pay tax during purchase. The difference
between incoming and outgoing tax collected by entrepreneurs in
both capacities is the amount deposited to the state.
Furthermore, entrepreneurs exporting goods are entitled to
claim the amount of tax deposited with the state when these goods
are exported. (14)