City foregoes billions due to illegal billboards

City foregoes billions due to illegal billboards

JAKARTA (JP): The municipal administration suffers huge financial losses every year due to the unauthorized setting up of billboards across the capital, the head of the city's revenue office said yesterday.

Wahab Rachmatsyah said that at the moment there are at least 6,000 unauthorized billboards up around the city.

"Thousand of other billboards are still there despite the fact that their licenses have expired," he said, adding that his office suffers losses of tens of billion rupiah annually due to this illegal practice.

Wahab made the remark while inspecting the demolition of a number of illegal billboards at several sites throughout the city.

Revenue office data indicates there are more than 100,000 officially registered billboards scattered throughout the capital. The data was collected and compiled by PT Bina Citra Sentra Makmur, a private company authorized by the city revenue office to do the job.

Wahab expressed the hope that with more accurate data collection the amount of city revenue gained through tax fees on billboards will surpass the target of Rp 47.2 billion (US$21.45 million) set for the 1995/1996 fiscal year. He cited the success achieved in the 1994/1995 fiscal year, when the office collected a total of Rp 49.9 billion, surpassing the target of Rp 47.2 billions.

At least eight big billboards put up illegally were demolished by a team made up of officials from the City Revenue Office and the City Public Order Office yesterday.

A minor incident took place on Jl. Panglima Polim, South Jakarta, when the owner of a drug store was upset with the impromptu action of the officials assigned to demolish a huge billboard located in the store compound.

At first the store owner strongly objected to the demolition by the officials, saying that he had prepared some workers to do it.

He later consented to the demolition provided journalists were not allowed to cover it.

But the officials continued to pull down the billboard under the eyes of many people, including several journalists, ignoring the threats made by the owner of the drug store, who said he would file a complaint with the police.

In general, the demolition of the eight billboards was carried out in orderly manner, although the work caused traffic jams on several streets due to the presence of many bystanders who were watching.

Helmy AR Syihab, the chairman of the City Council's Commission C urged the administration to take stricter action against delinquent companies which illegally erect billboards to advertise their products.

He said there were strong indications of collusion between "certain corrupt officials" and the owners of the companies who wished to put up billboards. He said all billboards should bear official plates clearly stating their legality, as well as the expiring dates of the licenses. (bas)