Multilevel marketing
Multilevel marketing
My wife used to be a member of multilevel marketing company PT
BMA's West Jakarta branch and paid Rp 290,000 for a package.
Later she took two packages for an initial capital of Rp 2.1
million each. After 30 days, she reaped a 30 percent profit of Rp
630,000 per package. Five percent of this amount was deducted as
commission.
When she wanted to make another deal she was asked to take at
least five packages. This was too burdensome for her, and while
trying to get friends to join the business, she learned from TV
reports that some multilevel marketing firms in North Sumatra,
including PT BMA, also with branches in Surabaya, were raided by
the police and later closed down. It was said that a boss of a
multilevel marketing company in Medan had fled, taking customers'
money amounting to Rp 1 trillion. Fortunately my wife has not
suffered any losses from these business deals.
My wife learned that PT BMA's customers in Jakarta consist of
people from all walks of life -- meatball noodle vendors,
housemaids and even well-to-do people who placed their money in
terms of hundreds of millions or even in the billions. She has
not heard of any Jakarta customers suffering losses from this
business in the sense that the company did not fail to pay back
people's capital and the people made some profit. One good thing
about PT BMA Jakarta is that the company is willing to show its
accounts in several banks and allows customers to transfer money
to any of the banks. Also the company told its customers that it
had made available Rp 1 trillion at BII as a guarantee for
customers' money.
It seems the company operates in a professional enough manner,
after all it won public confidence. Even after the news of the
closures of multilevel marketing firms in Medan and Surabaya, PT
BMA in Jakarta is running as usual, and many people still put
their money into the company. But my wife stopped participating
in this business after the release of the bad news, and lost her
Rp 290,000.
Will the authorities raid and close down PT BMA's Jakarta
branch? Many people want to know what follow-up measures will be
taken and the final position of the company. Or is there a power
play behind it? Why have the authorities taken an indifferent
attitude to this case?
Has the company, being a profit-making body, paid income tax?
The director general of tax could look into this.
SUHARSONO HADIKUSUMO
Jakarta