Sulawesi officials fight for tax collection at airport

Sulawesi officials fight for tax collection at airport

By Pandaya

MAROS, South Sulawesi (JP): A dimly lit conference room was
packed here last week with a score of Maros regency senior
officials and 29 journalists from across Indonesia.

Amid chocking cigarette smoke in the boiling 100-square-meter
room, the exhausted journalists used the regent's 30-page press
release to fan themselves while waiting for Regent Nasrun
Amrullah to finish his presentation on Maros' economic success.

All eyes were on Nasrun on the podium when he raised his
voice, paused and wiped his myopic eyes with a handkerchief and
said: "We lose Rp 1.5 billion (US$635,000) in taxes to Hasanuddin
Airport authorities (every year)."

There is no sign they will talk it over again... They have
been enjoying the money for so long."

Nasrun was sharing his frustration over a dragging dispute on
who had the authority to collect taxes in the largest airport in
eastern Indonesia.

Maros administration has tirelessly lobbied top government
officials since 1989 to gain control of collection of taxes and
fees at the airport, but no success is in sight.

Airport authorities argue that a Ministry of Transportation
decree authorizes them to collect the taxes and fees. But Maros
officials maintain that higher laws give them the mandate to do
it.

The dispute has been dragging on for more than three years.
The two parties' efforts to settle it amicably have hit the wall.
Nasrun once threatened to take the case to court before changing
his mind and seeking mediation from Jakarta. But the central
government has not replied to him.

Nasrun said he had the legal right to collect taxes and fees
on parking, restaurants, advertisements and street lights. All
would significantly contribute to the Maros administration's
coffers.

"Laws have not been properly enforced as far as Hasanuddin
Airport is concerned," he said.

In an interview with Kompas daily just after he assumed office
in 1994, Nasrun said that Tangerang regency government collected
Rp 5 billion a year in parking fees alone at the Soekarno-Hatta
airport.

Although known as Jakarta's airport, Soekarno-Hatta is in
Tangerang.

Similarly, Sidoarjo regency administration obtains about Rp
2.3 billion a year from taxes collected for it by the Juanda
Airport authorities in Surabaya.

Hasanuddin Airport administrator Sutopo Bona insists that he
has full authority to manage the airport, including the
collection of fees and taxes there.

Sutopo, a former navy pilot, said he was responsible to the
central government and that he had nothing to do with the Maros
administration on taxes.

The airport belonged to the transportation minister and all
the money it generated went to the state coffers, he said.

"There is no reason for a regent to claim the legal right to
collect taxes at the airport," Sutopo said.

Under international law, airport authorities did not need
permits to build facilities. And they had the right to control
building by local governments within an 180-meter radius outside
the airport, he said.

The airport, he said, needed a high degree of autonomy to
develop according to national and international standards without
too many bureaucratic hurdles.

"You can imagine what would happen if airport authorities were
put under a district government," he said.

The Hasanuddin authorities said the Maros administration had
benefited substantially from the airport because of a blooming
tourist industry.

The authorities said that regent Nasrun should build cinemas,
hotels, restaurants and other recreational facilities around the
airport.

The Hasanuddin Airport recently became an international
airport as a gateway to western and eastern Indonesia.