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)