Poultry farmers oppose new tax

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.