Poultry farmers oppose new tax

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Thousands of poultry farmers declined to pay a special poultry tax to the West Java provincial administration because of their losses in the fierce competition with the chicken cartel.

Alie Aboebakar, chairman of the Indonesian Poultry Farmers Association (PPUI), said here on Wednesday that both the association and its members in the province would not comply with Bylaw No. 25/2001 requiring them to pay between Rp 10 and Rp 50 per chicken in fees to the local administration.

"So far, the government has never given protection for domestic poultry farmers in facing the cartel monopolizing the broiler products. Now, it is enforcing the bylaw to extort us," he said.

He said domestic poultry farmers actually had no objection to the tax under the regional autonomy provided the funds collected from the farmers were returned in the form of training, protection and necessary information for the farmers.

He regretted that the provincial administration did nothing to help thousands of traditional farmers whose poultry business was killed by the cartel.

He urged the local administration not to close its eyes on the traditional farmers of domestic poultry because they contributed 70 percent of the province's demand of 19 million chickens per week.

Governor R. Nuriana was not available for comment on Wednesday while the provincial legislative council said it had yet to check the bylaw enforcement.

Hidayat Zaini, a member of the provincial legislature's Commission B on agriculture, pledged to follow up the poultry farmers' complaints.