Surjadi promises to review city regulation on radio taxes

Surjadi promises to review city regulation on radio taxes

JP/3/RADIO/0

Surjadi promises to review city regulation on radio taxes

JAKARTA (JP): In response to opposition from the public over
the city's putsch to reintroduce a radio tax, Governor Surjadi
Soedirdja has promised to review the regulation.

Surjadi said on Thursday that pending the review the
collection of the taxes will continue.

"But I have told my officials not to seize radios if their
owners cannot pay the taxes,"said Surjadi, adding that tax
officials should take into account the taxpayers financial
standing

"We, for example, will absolutely not confiscate a radio from
an owner of a cigarette stall if this is the one and only radio
he owns, even though he has not paid his radio taxes," Surjadi
said.

Surjadi's remarks were intended to reassure a public who have
questioned the motives and likely outcomes of a municipal policy
that was abandoned for more than a decade.

City councilors are not of one mind on the outdated radio tax.

Many members of the United Development Part (PPP) faction and
the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) are against the city
administration policy, while councilors from the Armed Forces
(ABRI) and Golkar are in support.

Ismunandar, one of the City Council's three deputy chairmen,
said he wondered whether the collection of radio taxes can be
carried out effectively as the governor's office does not have
data on the number of radios owned by Jakartans.

Big houses usually have five to six radios, but report only
one, Ismunandar said, adding that house-to-house searches will
not be possible.

When asked about the controversy, Ismunandar said the city
administration should first focus on making an inventory, rather
than collecting taxes on the radios owned by Jakartans.

Meanwhile Sutarno, the chairman of the City Council's
Commission A on law enforcement, told the Post he believes the
poor can pay the tax.

"It is only Rp 3,000 a year, not a month, and it can be paid
in installments. So, if the poor pay in monthly installments,
every month they are required to pay Rp 250. This means that
everyday they only have to put aside Rp 10 from their income,"
said Sutarno, who is also a member of the ABRI faction at the
City Council.

Sutarno said should owners be too poor to pay, they could go
to the head of their neighborhood or community units and apply
for a tax exemption.

"After all, the radio tax regulation is not unchangeable. For
the time being let the city administration proceed with the
taxing,"Sutarno said.

Helmy A.R. Syihab, the head of the Commission C on finance,
told The Jakarta Post that the taxing of car radios should be a
priority because this can simply be done by placing an official
of the city police in charge of collections from car owners who
come there to pay motor-vehicle taxes every year.

"Why doesn't the city administration do the same thing the Red
Cross does when it levies the so-called Red Cross donation on
train tickets or movie tickets?" Helmy asked.

The Red Cross usually declares one month a year as a fund
raising month and sends officials to bus stations, seaports and
airports as well as railway stations to collect from passengers
of public transit vehicles.(06/has)