Industry ministry to collect $16m in non-tax income

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Industry and Trade aims to collect Rp 38.4 billion (US$16 million) in non-tax income in the 1997/1998 fiscal year.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tunky Ariwibowo told a hearing of the House Budgetary Commission yesterday that his ministry expected to collect Rp 333.79 billion in dividends and taxes in 1997 from 32 state firms under its supervision.

Tunky acknowledged that his ministry was imposing several other levies, including fees for company registrations and exporters' letters of origin.

He did not disclose how much the ministry intended to raise from these levies.

"This income is used to finance the ministry's activities, not funded by the state budget. The management of these funds is accounted for annually by the Development Finance Comptroller," Tunky told the commission.

Tunky agreed with the commission that all non-tax revenue should be accounted for in the annual state budget. "But we must wait until the bill on non-tax revenue is passed into law to put these levies in order."

He said that all his ministry's tax and non-tax revenue, including dividends, was submitted to the government's coffer and thus accounted for in the state budget.

Of the expected Rp 38.4 billion non-tax income, Tunky said, Rp 26.65 billion would be raised from service levies, including licensing fees, Rp 11 billion from training and education fees and Rp 773.7 million from other sources, including rent and investment income from state assets.

Tunky reported that his ministry had collected Rp 42.9 billion in non-tax income in the 1995/1996 fiscal year, 34.7 percent above target.

In the first three quarters of the 1996/1997 fiscal year, the ministry collected Rp 24.3 billion in non-tax revenue, or 65 percent of its target for the fiscal year.

The ministry's Secretary General Aidil Juzar said his office expected to collect Rp 99.37 billion in dividends and Rp 234.4 billion in taxes from 32 state firms this year, down from projections of Rp 127.2 billion and Rp 291 billion respectively for last year.

Aidil acknowledged that the ministry's income from dividends this year would be much lower than last year's because the firms profits were expected to fall.

The 32 state firms pretax profits are projected to fall from Rp 1.03 trillion last year to Rp 862.8 billion this year, although their total sales are expected to increase from Rp 8.7 trillion to Rp 9.6 trillion.

Tunky said his ministry was preparing to float some of the firms to raise funds.

"We are pursuing this because the government faces financial constraints that does not let it inject fresh funds anymore as equity participation to help develop state firms," Tunky said.

The minister stressed that only state firms with sound financial performances in the last three years and good prospects would be floated.

The ministry is considering selling some of the firms to private investors to improve their performance.

Tunky said the ministry was considering setting up a holding company for all state fertilizer firms to improve distribution coordination. (rid)