KONI hails Mahadi's fund-raising idea

JAKARTA (JP): National Sports Council (KONI) deputy chairman Indra Djati Sidi welcomed State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Mahadi Sinambela's idea to raise funds for sports development through an excise tax on cigarettes.

Indra was commenting on Mahadi's remark on Thursday that President Abdurrahman Wahid had approved his fund-raising idea. He said the council would wait for further arrangements from Mahadi's office before taking any action.

"I'm very happy that the idea has received the approval of the President. This is a positive step, that the government has the political will to develop sports," he said.

Mahadi said Abdurrahman had asked him to discuss the idea with Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry Kwik Kian Gie and Minister of Finance Bambang Sudibyo.

He said he had submitted a proposal on the fund-raising program to his colleagues. In the proposal, Mahadi asked for a portion of the excise tax on cigarettes, between Rp 5 and Rp 10 per cigarette, to go toward sport development and youth activities.

Mahadi, who said earlier he had quit smoking, stated that the idea was not his own, but he was only carrying forward with a proposal that had been conceived by his predecessor Agung Laksono.

The idea to raise funds from cigarette taxes also was raised by Agung's predecessor Hayono Isman, but the proposal was discarded at the time for fear that it would affect the state budget.

Indra, however, said the ministers should consider banning smoking, even if sports officials were benefiting from the sale of cigarettes.

"The government should compromise with the cigarette manufacturers. Selling cigarettes is OK, but the manufacturers have to include a warning on the cigarette packs saying smoking is hazardous to the health. The government should also ban smoking in public areas. After that, I'm sure that the number of smokers would fall," he said.

"But these ideas may not work. I think that our people are basically heavy smokers," said Indra, who is also the director general of elementary and secondary education at the Ministry of National Education.

He also highlighted the importance of a sustained training program for athletes, saying that training often had to be halted due to a lack of funds.

Meanwhile, Mahadi's assistant, Amrum Bustamam, said on Friday his office would also consider a project whereby sports development funds would be raised through a fee on vehicle ownership documents.

He said Mahadi had yet to discuss this idea with the National Police, which is in charge of issuing the ownership documents, the House of Representatives, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Indonesian Ulemas Council and the Indonesian Consumers Foundation.

"We will set up a joint team to study the possibility before implementing the program, because the collection of fees would require a government regulation," he said. (ivy)