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.