Freeport largest taxpayer

Freeport largest taxpayer

Recent media reports in the capital have it that Mr. Amien
Rais has said more or less the following about PT Freeport
Indonesia:

Whereas after Mr. Amien Rais criticized the performance of PT
Freeport Indonesia, it is now ranked first as a taxpaying company
in Indonesia, a big jump from its previous rank of 54th.

As Mr. Amien Rais is now gaining greater fame and reputation,
a proper response to or explanation about the above statement is
needed from authorities, or the statement could cause
misunderstanding among community members in Indonesia.

This misunderstanding may be of two kinds, both being
incorrect for lack of supporting evidence.

The first kind of misunderstanding is the opinion that Mr.
Amien Rais has such outstanding ability that with his sharp
criticism he can boost the performance of PT Freeport so that
within a relatively short period of time the company can
amazingly change itself so that as a taxpaying company it can
jump from 54th to first.

The second kind of misunderstanding, which is rather negative
in nature and may harm the reputation of the company, is the
opinion that PT Freeport has during this time engaged in unfair
practices.

For many years before Mr. Amien Rais launched his criticism,
the company paid just enough taxes to be 54th while it could have
afforded to pay a larger amount for first position. In other
words, the company has during this time been engaged in large-
scale tax evasion.

Reality is in fact different.

When Mr. Mar'ie Muhammad, the minister of finance, was
director general of tax, taxpaying companies were grouped on the
basis of the amount of the taxes paid. At that time PT Freeport
was ranked 54th, although it paid over Rp 100 billion in taxes.
More accurate data must be available at the Ministry of Finance.

If a taxpaying company ranked 54th has paid so many taxes,
logically other taxpayers at a higher ranking should have paid a
larger amount of taxes. If there had been 100 potential big
taxpayers in Indonesia at that time, the state's tax revenue
would have played a dominant role in financing the state budget.

The then president director of PT Freeport, Mr. Usman
Pamuncak, immediately contacted the Directorate General of Tax to
inquire about this matter. A reexamination was then conducted.
The result was that there was a technical error. After the error
was corrected, PT Freeport Indonesia was then declared
Indonesia's largest taxpayer.

SUKANTO

Jakarta