People to repay tycoons' debts
People to repay tycoons' debts
From Suara Karya
In the draft state budget for 2001, which the government
presented to the House of Representatives on Oct. 2, 2000, 72
percent of the state's revenues (about Rp 172.44 trillion of the
projected revenues of Rp 242.99 trillion) will come from the tax
sector. It is also projected that income tax will contribute Rp
93 trillion, up by 90 percent from the figure in the previous
budget, and that value-added tax will yield some Rp 46.85
trillion, or 80 percent more than in last year's budget.
This means that the government will make every effort to
optimize tax receipts in order to be able to reach the target.
This is evident from the amendments to the Tax Laws, which will
become effective only in January 2001.
As is commonly understood, economically speaking our society,
the members of which constitute tax objects, still lags far
behind those in other countries of Southeast Asia, where
economic activities are carried out to the optimum from the
upstream to the downstream sectors.
On the state spending side, the burden that the state will
have to bear owing to the payment of interest on offshore loans
in 2001 will amount to Rp 77.40 trillion, which figure
constitutes the biggest portion of the state's routine spending
of Rp 186.85 trillion.
From media reports we have learned that most of these offshore
loans have been incurred by the Jimbaran Group or the Cendana
family and their cronies. So, who actually must assume
responsibility for the shattered economic condition of the
country?
Meanwhile, the members of society are required to set aside
part of their income to pay income tax and other taxes, and we
know that tax receipts provide quite a substantial contribution
to the payment of the interest on the offshore loans incurred by
these business tycoons.
Does all of this reflect justice? Then, what about tax
manipulations committed by giant companies, most of which are
also controlled by the Jimbaran Group and the Cendana family, as
a result of which losses worth trillions of rupiah are inflicted
on the state? What has the government done to recoup the money
siphoned off by these tax manipulators?
Now that the business tycoons have robbed the people of their
money by cunningly evading the payment of tax to the state's
coffers, must the government just sit idle although eventually it
is the government which must settle the debts of these tycoons'
by using the people's money collected by the government in the
form of income tax and other taxes, regardless of the worsening
economic plight of the people. How does this differ from forced
labor? The answer is, "Don't wait until independence becomes the
answer."
SYAFRYANTO ADAM
Jakarta