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)