Diplomats want cheaper lunches

JAKARTA: Foreign diplomats and their families may be excused from paying the 10 percent VAT imposed on their hotel and food bills, the City Revenue Agency chief Deden Supriadi said on Wednesday.

"The regulation is still being discussed. The governor plans to give the special tax treatment to the foreign diplomats," Deden said during a hearing with the City Council Commission C for budgetary affairs.

The commission chairwoman Ana Rudhiantina agreed with the plan, saying that it met Vienna Convention requirements regulating diplomatic protocol.

"Indonesian diplomats get such a tax facility abroad. So here we have to give foreign diplomats the same privileges," Ana said.

She revealed that only the United States had requested they be excused from paying the tax, saying that the proposal was still being discussed by the Foreign Ministry.-JP