Government eases tax relief procedure

JAKARTA (JP): The government will ease application procedures for property tax relief next year for people who are financially strapped, Tax Director General Fuad Bawazier said.

Fuad said that the new procedure would involve heads of villages and districts so applicants will no longer need to endure long waits to find out if their requests were approved.

"If the appeal of a taxpayer is approved, his property tax payment for the prevailing fiscal year will be immediately lowered," he said.

Land and building tax rates are based on the market price of properties. The system, however, has caused concern for financially incapable people, such as pensioners living in the city and natural disaster victims, as the property tax they are obligated to pay often far exceeds their annual income.

These people may appeal for tax relief or tax reductions, but existing procedures are not only extremely complicated but also exceedingly time consuming.

The planned mechanism will be carefully enforced to prevent it being abused, he said.

Fuad said that the government's property tax receipts in the April to June period, the first three months of 1995-96 fiscal year, had reached 14.8 percent of the Rp 1.92 trillion (US$872 million) projected for the entire fiscal year..

He said the property tax receipts in the April to June period were around 0.8 percent lower than those of the corresponding period in the last fiscal year. (hen)