JP/3/BILLBOA/0

50 percent of billboards unlicensed: councilor

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council lashed out against the alleged collusion between bureaucrats and entrepreneurs on unlicensed billboards.

Helmy AR Syihab, chairman of the City Council's Commission C on finance, yesterday said 90 percent of billboards in the city have no "license plates" on them, and 50 percent of them allegedly have no licenses at all.

After inspecting billboards along Jl. MH. Thamrin, Jl. Jendral Sudirman and Jl. Gatot Subroto, the city's main thoroughfares, Helmy voiced concern over the findings.

"The plates are necessary because they tell us, and the officials in charge of inspecting them, when the billboards' licenses expire," Helmy told journalists yesterday.

According to city regulation, when the license has expired, the owner of the billboard can extend it within 40 days. If the owner does not want to extend it, the city administration will remove it by using guaranteed funds from the owner's company.

He suggested that some delinquent companies are able to get the permit plates for unlicensed billboards, while the licensed ones are left unmarked. Such actions must be in coordination with phony officials.

"An official who works together with such a company has already committed conspiracy because the company does not pay for some billboards it owns but only pays a small amount to that official instead," he remarked.

Deputy head of the City Revenue Agency Syuaib Nuhung, who escorted Helmy and other councilors from Commission C to inspect the billboards, declined to comment on Helmy's remarks.

"I'm not the one who has authority to give an explanation on this matter," he told The Jakarta Post.

Helmy acknowledged that the city revenue office successfully collected Rp 40 billion (US$19 million) from levies on billboards in the previous fiscal year, or 33 percent over the target. This fiscal year's target is set at Rp 39 billion. (11)