City Revenue Agency to be questioned over tax hike
City Revenue Agency to be questioned over tax hike
JAKARTA (JP): City Council Commission C for city revenue will
summon the head of the City Revenue Agency over his failure to
delay the enactment of a 1998 bylaw which requires operators of
nightspots to pay a 30 percent tax, a councillor said on
Wednesday.
Commission C chairman Amarullah Asbah said during a meeting
with representatives of the Indonesian Association of Nightspots
(Aspehindo) that the commission would soon discuss the 1998
bylaw's enactment in a tripartite meeting with agency chairman
Deden Supriadi.
"The agency has to clarify its decision to ignore an agreement
between the agency, deputy governor on economics and finance
Fauzie Alvi Yasin, Aspehindo chairman and the commission last
April, which endorsed the postponement of the bylaw's enactment,"
Amarullah of the Golkar Party faction told the representatives,
who came to the commission to air their protest over the current
tax, which is 20 percent higher than the previous one.
City Bylaw No. 7/1998 regulates the tax increase from 10
percent to 30 percent on coin-operated game machines,
discotheques, massage parlors, pubs and singing halls. Meanwhile,
other nightspots are required to pay a 10 percent tax.
The new tax took effect last November.
Suharto Ardan, the Aspehindo chairman, said nightspot
operators previously stated they could not afford to pay the tax
hike.
"We only charge our customers 10 percent tax, but the agency
has forced us to pay 30 percent since November. It's just
impossible," he said.
"The tax increase has added to the financial burden of owners,
many of whom are now in the early stages of bankruptcy due to the
prolonged economic crisis," he added.
The entertainment industry has been severely affected, he
said. He cited that some 15,000 workers of various nightspots in
the city planned to take to the streets, demanding the revocation
of the 1998 bylaw.
"We have forbidden them from doing so. But if the agency
refuses to postpone the enactment of the bylaw, we (the nightspot
operators) will join them in their protests," he said.
Ardan alleged that several agency officials told operators of
nightspots to pay the old 10 percent rate, but to put the new tax
rate on the payment receipts.
"It is unrespectable. They (agency officials) are trying to
trick us, hoping that in the next few months, they can force us
to pay the new tax rate as stipulated in the bylaw," he said.
"We have been forced to pay higher taxes, but we have received
little protection from the administration," he said, referring to
the sporadic raids conducted by members of the Islam Defenders
Front (FPI), who sought to curb vice in the capital. (06)