Collection of foreigner tax gets support

Collection of foreigner tax gets support

JAKARTA (JP): City councilors have hailed the city
administration's ongoing operation to collect overdue foreigner
taxes from expatriates in the city, suggesting that such an
operation should be expanded into other sectors.

Helmy AR Syihab, chairman of the council's Commission C which
is in charge of financial affairs, said yesterday that the city
administration should also take action against those who evade
taxes if the city wants to reach regional revenue targets.

The operation, which got underway on Sept. 25 and is scheduled
to last through Oct. 10, is being conducted by an integrated team
involving officials from the City Revenue Office, the City
Immigration Office, the City Manpower Office, the Jakarta Office
of the Investment Coordinating Agency, the city police and the
Jakarta military command.

H. Wahab Rachmatsyah, the head of the City Revenue Office,
said that the operation was prompted by the high level of unpaid
foreigner taxes from 1992 and 1994.

He said the total value of the overdue taxes in the two-year
period stands around Rp 2 billion (US$909,090).

The operation is also aimed at updating the city's data on the
number of expatriates living in Jakarta.

In December 1994, there were 49,476 expatriates living in the
city, reported Ibrahim Saleh, an official at the office.

Helmy said that despite the city administration's commitment
to enhancing its annual revenues, the city did not change the
foreigner tax target for the fiscal years of 1994/1995 and
1995/1996.

The target has been maintained at Rp 3 billion, he said.

However, he declined to say if the unchanged target was due to
the failure of the city administration to reach last year's tax
target.

In a related development, Mansyur Achmad, a councilor from the
Golkar faction, said the operation should be conducted
consistently and simultaneously in the city's five mayoralties,
the Antara news agency reported.

He said the city should have accurate data on the number of
expatriates residing in the capital in order to facilitate tax
collection.

He urged the city administration to hold more operations to
help prevent foreigners from entering the city illegally. (32)