Indramayu regent dismisses threat of tax boycott

Indramayu regent dismisses threat of tax boycott

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Indramayu, West Java

Indramayu Regent Irianto M.S. Syafiudin has dismissed demands
made by village heads who have threatened to stop paying property
tax, saying that paying tax was every citizen's obligation.

Irianto was responding to demands made by some 300 village
heads who recently threatened to stop paying property tax and to
relinquish their duty of running the village administration if
their terms of office were not extended to eight years from the
current five.

"The village heads' demands cannot be met. I will not hesitate
to suspend or dismiss those campaigning for a tax boycott among
the people. This action is intolerable and against the law," he
said.

The secretary of the local office of the Association of
Indonesian Village Heads (AKSI), Baidullah, said that the
association was serious in its threat and village heads would
stay out of the administration office while calling on locals to
not pay their taxes on buildings or property they owned.

"All 302 village heads have agreed to press the regent to
extend their terms of office to eight years," he said.

He declined to answer why the village heads wanted their terms
extended since they were allowed by the 1999 Law on regional
autonomy to stay in office for two consecutive terms.

"We have demanded the regency administration and legislative
council to revise the ruling on village heads' terms of office
because the limitation goes against the people's sovereignty in
establishing a village administration," he said.

The chairman of the Indramayu legislative council, Iwan
Hendrawan, acknowledged the village chiefs' demand, saying the
legislative council would discuss it during its next hearing with
the regent.

"Both the local administration and the legislative council
should pay attention to the village chiefs' demand because if
they all campaign for the tax boycott it would disrupt the
running of the public administration at the higher levels," he
said.

He also acknowledged that village heads had so far played an
important role in persuading people to pay their taxes.

"The legislative council will try to seek a peaceful
settlement to the village heads' demand to create a conducive
situation in the regency," he said.