Mayor gets promises instead of money
JAKARTA (JP): Disappointed with the city's poor tax revenue, Central Jakarta Mayor Andi Subur Abdullah led a team on Tuesday visiting companies notorious for not paying their land and building taxes.
"We sent notices to all the companies we visited today a week ago. But it seems they didn't take the matter seriously.
"I was really disappointed when I was told that the financial director of a company had just gone home when we arrived," he told reporters.
The mayor visited four companies in the Central Jakarta business district -- the Sahid Group hotel chain; the operators of the Taman Ria Senayan recreational park, the Menteng Regency and Marriott apartments; and the Senayan driving range management firm PT Adil Andaru.
Sahid Group management, represented by its operational director Haryono Hadikusumo, said the company would pay its tax bill of Rp 968 million (US$138,285) soon after the post-fasting Idul Fitri celebrations, estimated to fall on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9 next year.
The management of Menteng Regency and Marriott apartments, PT Duta Buana Permai, which owe the city Rp 450 million, assigned a member of its legal team, Fransisca, to negotiate with the mayoralty team. She asked for the bill to be delayed.
The operator of the Taman Ria Senayan recreational park, the Ria Pembangunan Foundation, asked for a reduction amounting to Rp 1.857 billion.
The foundation, established by wives of high-ranking active and retired military officers, asked the team to obtain the tax from the park's management, PT Ariobimo Laguna Perkasa.
"We are not purely in business, so we suggest the mayoralty ask for the tax payment from the park management," Lulu Lugiati, the wife of the former minister of defense Edi Sudradjat, said.
The director of the Senayan driving range management company PT Adil Andaru, Gatot Teguh Ariffianto, said the company had paid Rp 238 million of its 1998 land tax payment bill of Rp 450 million last July and would complete the rest by the end of this month.
"Today we paid Rp 100 million and another Rp 112 million will be paid later this month," he said.
He said the company's 1999 land tax of Rp 560 million would be paid next March.
Andi said that his office will monitor and examine the taxpayers complaints. "We came not merely as debt collectors, but also to explain our intentions and to seek the companies' clarification on this matter," he added.
Andi warned the taxpayers that his office would take firm action, including confiscating their property within 24 hours after a final notice, if they failed to pay their debts as promised.
Mayoralty data shows that from 1993 to 1994 at least 62,000 taxpayers have not paid their land taxes. As of Dec. 1 unpaid taxes amounted to Rp 63 billion (US$9.4 million). (01)