JP/3/BILLBOA/0

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)