Firms get tax penalty

JAKARTA (JP): The government has suspended the taxpayer status of 48 companies allegedly involved in tax manipulations, thereby canceling their right to a tax refund.

Karsono Surjowibowo, secretary of the Tax Directorate General, announced yesterday that the 48 companies have, allegedly, abused the use of tax invoices.

Karsono said that the tax registry numbers of those companies have been suspended so that they will no longer be able to receive a refund of their value added tax (VAT) payments.

He did not specify what fraud had been committed by these companies.

A source at the tax office said that so far the government has found 3,000 cases of VAT manipulations, involving a financial loss of over Rp 150 billion (US$67.56 million) to the state.

Most of the cases involved the use of manipulated tax invoices to obtain tax refunds.

Export-oriented companies are allowed to get tax refunds from the government for the payment of a 10 percent VAT for their imported raw materials and capital goods.(hen)