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.