Shooting association seeks tax exemption for bullets

Shooting association seeks tax exemption for bullets

JAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the Indonesian Shooting Association
(Perbakin) Sutiyoso urged the government yesterday to consider
classifying imported bullets and other shooting materials as
exempt from taxes.

Sutiyoso said the sports organization could only barely
maintain a supply of bullets for its athletes before the economic
crisis crippled the country.

"You can imagine our difficulties because a single bullet
costs Rp 2,600 and a clay pigeon Rp 500, while an individual
athlete usually fires 120 bullets and hits a lot of clay pigeons
during a practice," he said after opening the Minister of Defense
Cup shooting championships.

A Perbakin official said recently that the sports body spent
Rp 2 million (US$200) on bullets for each practice session to
gear up for the 13th Asian Games in December.

Sutiyoso said Perbakin badly needed the government's help
because shooting was a sport that Indonesian athletes could excel
in.

"We should not waste this potential, not to mention the huge
number of gold medals on offer in shooting competitions either in
the Asian Games or other sports events," said Sutiyoso, who is
also the governor of Jakarta.

The National Sports Council has asked Perbakin to groom four
women clay shooting specialists for the Asiad in December. Only
three of them will be picked to compete in the games.

Indonesian marksmen and markswomen landed 11 gold medals in
the 19th Southeast Asian Games here last year, up from two golds
in the 1995 games in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The government categorizes weapons and bullets as luxury
goods, subject to more than a 100 percent import tax.

Sutiyoso said other countries did not impose such high taxes
on the shooting materials.

When asked whether he had made an official request for a tax
exemption to the Ministry of Finance, Sutiyoso said: "I am tired
of doing this either written or verbally," he said.

The annual tournament, the second of its kind, is scheduled to
end Wednesday. (imn/emf)