City council approves tax collection decree

City council approves tax collection decree

JAKARTA (JP): The city council yesterday approved a new
provincial decree on development tax collection proposed by the
administration.

The new decree abolished the collection system called the
official assessment and will rely heavily on honest self
assessment from restaurants, bars and other outlets which charge
customers 10 per cent tax on food and drinks.

"The system is better than the old one because tax payers (the
food and drink outlets) are being trusted to count, collect and
pay the tax to the city revenue office. The system will also
enable city officials to concentrate on serving and supervising
the tax payers," Hizbiyah Rochim, spokesperson from the United
Development Party faction, said in the plenary meeting.

However, the faction also warned the administration to be fair
in serving tax payers and urged the revenue office to improve the
skills of its officials in implementing the decree.

Meanwhile the Armed Forces faction urged the city
administration to provide detailed information to tax payers
before implementing the decree.

"This is important if the city administration wants the decree
obeyed by the tax payers," Sutarno, the spokesman for the
faction, said.

The decree will come into effect as soon as it gets approval
from the minister of home affairs.

The head of the city revenue office, Wahab Rachmatsjah, said
that the new system was made to simplify the collection procedure
and to trust restaurants and other entertainment centers to pay
the tax.

"The system was drawn up to cope with the current development
situation as well as to improve our service to tax payers," Wahab
said.

Wahab said the city administration has estimated the revenue
from last year's development tax will increase by 17 percent,
from Rp 196 billion (US$85.21 million) to Rp 230 billion in the
1996/1997 fiscal year.

He said the estimation is based on last year's revenue from
the tax sector which was 28 percent higher than the target of Rp
153 billion.

"On the other hand the number of restaurants and other
entertainment centers in Jakarta has also increased from 3,005
last year to 3,069 this year," he said

Wahab said all tax payers should register with his office and
monthly payments will be compared with the previous payments.

"We will know if they are cheated because it is impossible for
the payments to be much smaller than in previous periods," he
said. (yns)