New Tax Tribunal vows to uphold court transparency

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The newly established Tax Tribunal will open its court hearings to the public, a move that will disturb companies who want to keep certain information confidential.

Secretary of the Tax Tribunal Achmad Suhari told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the new policy was based on the existing law on tax tribunals and was meant to help ensure transparency.

Allowing the public to attend court hearings on tax disputes, however, will be disadvantageous to the companies involved because competitors could obtain confidential information on their operations or financial situation.

The Tax Tribunal was set up on April 12 to settle tax disputes between the government and taxpayers, which includes both companies and individuals. Disputes between taxpayers and regional administrations are also handled by this tribunal.

The tribunal replaces the role of a special government institution under the finance ministry called the Tax Dispute Settlement Agency (BPSP).

Under BPSP, hearings on tax dispute cases are not open to the public.

BPSP has been criticized for not being neutral because it is under the finance ministry with taxpayers usually losing out. It also lacked transparency because hearings were held behind closed doors.

Legislators had insisted that tax dispute hearings should be opened to the public.

The Tax Tribunal is under the supervision of the State Administrative Court (PTUN) in which decisions issued by the new tribunal would be final and binding.

An appeal at the Supreme Court would, however, be allowed.

In the two months since it began, the Tax Tribunal has handled between 150 and 200 cases a month.

Some 95 percent of the cases involving tax disputes handled by the Tax Tribunal involved corporate taxpayers, Achmad added.

The government is under pressure to raise a huge amount of tax revenue to finance the state budget, which is heavily burdened with the cost of bailing out troubled banks.