Sports bill presented to House

Sports bill presented to House

Musthofid and Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The long-awaited sports bill was presented before a House of
Representatives (DPR) plenary session on Monday at the start of a
long process before it could be endorsed as a sports act.

Sponsored by House Commission VI which oversees human
resources and religious affairs, the bill is one of few initiated
by the House.

The sports bill consists of 14 chapters and 43 articles and
will only regulate general issues in order to allow flexibility
when applied in the field.

"We don't want to draft a detailed bill that will leave little
space for creativity when the law is enacted," commission
spokesman Ferdiansyah told reporters after the presentation.

"On the other hand, we must have a clear framework for
national policy guidelines."

Among other things, the bill stipulates that the government
will partly bear the funding burden through State Budget (APBN)
and local administration budgets (APBD).

Another financial source is through sports-related business
involvement such as sponsorships and sports industries.

Society in general is also encouraged to finance sport to be
more self-reliant. The bill also allows nonbinding contributions
to finance sports activities.

"Actually, we want to establish a tax deduction mechanism for
companies that are willing to support sports development," said
Ferdiansyah, a legislator of the Golkar Party faction.

"But we must be sure that it will not violates existing tax
regulations.

Another crucial issue in the bill is the establishment of a
national sports coordinating body directly under the president to
channel state funds to sports activities.

"Previously, the National Sports Council (KONI) received
funding through the Sports Directorate General of the National
Education Ministry," said another legislator, Ronggo Soenarso of
the Indonesian Military/National Police faction.

"With the board's presence, KONI will receive the funding
directly.

Meanwhile, commission chairman, Taufikurrahman Saleh of the
National Awakening Party (PKB) faction expected the bill to give
greater freedom to the local administrations to draw up their own
sports planning.

The House steering committee will set another plenary session
for a month's time for House's factions to make their response to
the bill.