Govt gets Rp 26b in taxes for tourism promotion

Govt gets Rp 26b in taxes for tourism promotion

JAKARTA (JP): The government has collected Rp 26.47 billion in
development taxes, which will be used to finance the country's
tourism industry, Minister of Tourism, Post and
Telecommunications Joop Ave says.

He said yesterday that by the end of last month, a number of
local administrations had reported the results of their
collections of the development tax from hotels and restaurants.

Based on Presidential Decree No. 6/1993, the government
requires the 10 most visited provinces -- North and West Sumatra,
Jakarta, West, Central and East Java, Yogyakarta, Bali, North and
South Sulawesi -- to pass on two percent of the funds collected
from development tax to the Ministry of Tourism, Post and
Telecommunications. The funds will then be channeled to the
Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board for tourism promotion.

The country needs millions of dollars for the promotion of its
tourism industry. More than six million foreign visitors are
expected to visit Indonesia annually by 1998. The number of
tourist arrivals in Indonesia reached more than four million last
year, bringing more than US$4.7 billion in foreign exchange.

A report from the research and development office of the
ministry showed last month that the government collected just Rp
75 million in development taxes in 1994, out of Rp 45 billion
targeted.

Joop corrected the numbers and said that the total funds
collected from the tax actually reached Rp 26.47 billion,
slightly exceeding Rp 25 billion, which, he added, was the actual
target set by the government. (icn)