City authorities told to impose new taxes

City authorities told to impose new taxes

JAKARTA (JP): A city councilor says that the city
administration should find more things to tax in order to raise
regional revenues.

Helmy AR Syihab, the chairman of the City Council's commission
for financial affairs, said yesterday that new taxes could be
imposed on people who apply for land ownership documents and
individuals or companies that operate generators to produce
electricity.

"The two tax possibilities have potential because land
transactions happen very often in the city and the electricity
generators are now used in many buildings, instead of electricity
from the state-electricity company PLN," he told The Jakarta
Post.

He made the statements after the City Council approved a bill
on the organization and working mechanism of the City Revenue
Office in a plenary session yesterday.

Helmy said in the 1994/1995 fiscal year, the city's
originally-earned revenues reached more than Rp 1.31 trillion,
which was 13.6 percent higher than the Rp 1.15 target set by the
government.

He said that originally-earned revenues contributed 60.23
percent to the city's total revenues of Rp 2.186 trillion during
the last fiscal year.

Originally-earned revenues are revenues that come from taxes,
while regional or provincial revenues come from such sources as
central government subsidies or foreign loans.

For the current fiscal year, the city administration is
expecting Rp 1.42 trillion in originally-earned revenues, Helmy
said.

The just-approved bill is meant to update the regional
regulation No. 5/1983 on the same subject, he said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs usually takes between three and
six months to deliberate a bill before passing it into law.

With the new regional regulation, the city revenue officials
are likely to increase city revenues. (32)