Hotels given deadline to pay tax arrears

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration has given a one-month period for five hotels to pay their tax arrears and fines amounting to Rp 36 billion (US$3.2 million) or face seizure.

City Revenue Agency head Deden Supriadi told reporters at the City Hall that his office was working closely with the Directorate of Taxes at the Ministry of Finance to follow up the five hotels.

"I hope they will pay their tax arrears in less than one month. Otherwise, we will seize the hotels and put them up for auction," Deden said.

He added that his agency was also discussing with the tax office technical matters regarding the seizure and auction of the hotels, as stipulated in Law 19/1997 on regional tax and retribution.

"If this (the seizure and auction) happens, it would be a first time for us. So we need to discuss it thoroughly first," he added.

The five hotels are Hotel Sahid Jaya on Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Hotel Mulia Senayan on Jl. Asia Afrika, both in Central Jakarta; Putri Duyung Cottage in Ancol, North Jakarta, Hotel Pulau Ayer and Hotel Pulau Sepa Permai, both in Thousand Islands.

Hotel Sahid's tax arrears and fines reached Rp 4.2 billion and Rp 14.6 billion respectively while Hotel Mulia's tax arrears and fines totaled Rp 5.2 billion and Rp 12 billion.

Hotel Pulau Ayer's tax arrears and fines amounted Rp 264 million, Putri Duyung Cottage's tax arrears reached Rp 232 million and Pulau Sepa's tax arrears and fines totaled Rp 192 million.

Deden admitted on Friday that Hotel Sahid Jaya management had paid Rp 1 billion, but it was still far from its total tax arrears and fines of Rp 18.8 billion.

Hotel Sahid management earlier announced that their unpaid taxes were not as large as was stated by the agency, saying that the taxes and fines only reached Rp 7 billion.

Deden said the fines were bigger than the tax arrears as the hotels had not paid taxes for years. Hotel Sahid, for instance, had not paid its taxes to the city administration since 1996.

He said the hotels could not argue about the amount of tax payments, but they could protest the fines with the Tax Dispute Settlement Body if they disagreed with the amount.

"So far, none of the hotels have reported to the body," he said, adding that the agency had applied the fines in compliance with the law.

He regretted that the hotels had withheld the tax money as the money did not belong to the hotels but to the public, and therefore, the tax must be paid to the city administration.

The city aims at securing Rp 350 billion in hotel and restaurant taxes this year. (jun)