Land problem in Tangerang

Land problem in Tangerang

JAKARTA (JP): As of last year, Tangerang ran out of land for industrial and housing estates, the head of regency development planning board, Agus Rachmad said.

Agus said over the weekend that his office had to turn down any requests for permits to develop new industrial and housing estates in Tangerang, some 30 kilometers west of here.

He said the regency had issued 238 permits for developers to build industrial and housing complexes on a total of 29,000 hectares allotted for the purpose since 1994, Antara reported over the weekend.

The regency revenue office raked in Rp 3.7 billion from permit applicants, he said. "We had targeted only Rp 1.5 billion from the permit applicants."

Agus denied last year's reports alleging that an official of the Tangerang regency revenue office had swindled Rp 3.5 billion collected from developers applying for permits.

"That's not true," he said, admitting that his office had not yet paid consultants' due income tax. "There was a change in the amount of the income tax, from 1.2 percent to 8 percent. It took time for us to calculate that."

Reports on the alleged swindle last year originated from a letter sent to the regency by a man identifying himself as Yan Stevanus, who said that the fraud was discovered by West Java's Development and Finance Control Board. (sur)