City to prepare online tax system
City to prepare online tax system
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
City Council Commission C for financial affairs suggested on
Tuesday an online tax system to boost revenue, but city
administration officials doubt that it would work.
In a council plenary session, Commission C said a City Revenue
Agency online payment system could be established for taxpayers.
"We believe that an online system would boost city revenue as
it would minimize leaks in tax payments," said commission
spokesman Setia Budi, reading the commission's general view on
the draft of a bylaw on hotels, nightlife venues and
advertisement signs proposed by the city administration.
According to Setia, an online system would curb irregularities
in tax payments as there would be less direct contact between tax
officials and taxpayers.
With the system, he said hotel, restaurant and entertainment
center patrons could directly pay value-added tax (VAT) when
paying their bills.
Responding to the commission's suggestion, City Revenue Agency
head Deden Supriadi doubted that the system would work any better
than it did last year.
"But at that time, much of the equipment could not be
operated. I don't know whether the equipment was damaged," Deden
said.
He said earlier that his agency was preparing the online
system, but it would be for big hotels and restaurants that
already had good accounting systems.
"Their systems are ready to be connected to the City Revenue
Agency's system, and therefore we do not need to invest too
much," he said.
While for small hotels, restaurants and nightlife venues with
poor accounting systems, the city administration would need to
invest a large amount of money, including on buying computers for
each tax target, he said.
The agency recently sent notices to 774 tax evaders, mostly
hotels, restaurants, nightclubs and billboard owners with total
VAT arrears amounting to Rp 58.5 billion.
Observers say that the sluggish payment of VAT could be
understood as the managements of hotels, restaurants and
nightclubs only acted as VAT collectors for the tax office.
A number of councillors and chairman of the City's Education
and Training Center Ahyat M. Awe blamed City Revenue Agency
personnel for the problems as they did not crack down on tax
evaders even though they had the authority to do so.
"The problem happened because of collusion between officials
at the agency and taxpayers," Ahyat, who was former city
administration spokesman, said, adding that the online system
would not totally solve the problem.
However, Governor Sutiyoso said that his administration
approved of the idea. He said the administration would prepare
for the online tax payment system so that it could be implemented
next year.
"It is a good idea, we hope that next year the system will be
ready," Sutiyoso added.