Mayor gets promises instead of money

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)