Tax cuts won't hurt revenues
Tax cuts won't hurt revenues
JAKARTA (JP): Finance Minister Mar'ie Muhammad was optimistic yesterday that the proposed income tax cuts will not cause the government's revenues from taxes to drop.
The minister told members of a plenary session at the House of Representatives that the decrease in receipts caused by the planned lower tax rates will be offset by a more intensive tax collection system.
He said the expansion of the coverage of withheld taxes, coupled by stronger law enforcement, could offset the possible fall in income tax receipts.
In his reply to the House members' inquiries about the four government sponsored tax bills, the minister said that the drop in income tax rates will not jeopardize efforts to lessen the dominance of foreign aid in the state budget.
Mar'ie also defended the government's proposal to establish an independent court to exclusively handle tax disputes between the government and taxpayers.(hen)
Pay rise ends airline strike
MELBOURNE, Australia (AFP): A 12 percent pay increase Saturday ended a snap strike by Qantas flight attendants which stranded about 3,000 passengers.
The pursers, or senior flight attendants, refused to work on two Qantas Airbuses Friday.
Seven mid-afternoon flights and 3,000 passengers were affected, Qantas spokesman Mark Williams said
The strike saw passengers stranded here and in Sydney and Brisbane.
Maurice Alexander, industrial officer for the Flight Attendants' Association of Australia, said the dispute, which concerned pay, started in April after Qantas and Australian Airlines merged.
Quake kills one in China
BEIJING (Reuter): One person died in a stampede and hundreds of people were injured in China when a strong earthquake rocked the Taiwan Straits on Friday, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.
China said the earthquake measured 7.3 on the open-ended Richter scale, but Taiwan officials said the tremor, felt in Hong Kong as well, measured 6.4.
In south China's Guangdong province, children in three primary schools in Raoping county stampeded in terror after the quake. One person died and 202 people were injured.
Park gets Rp 0.5b mosque
BOGOR (JP): A half billion rupiah (US$230,000) mosque has been built in the Bogor Botanical Garden, one of the largest botanical gardens in the country which is also a popular recreation spot.
Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo led a ceremony over the weekend to inaugurate the grand, luxurious mosque built by Yayasan Amalbakti Muslim Pancasila (YAMP), an Islamic charity foundation chaired by President Soeharto.
The 361-square-meter mosque, billed as the largest mosque ever built by YAMP, is located on a one-hectare plot of land inside the botanical park.
The construction cost of the mosque, which is designed to accommodate 700 worshipers, is Rp 200 million while the remaining funds will be used to landscape its surrounds, Antara reported.
The head of the park, Suhirman, said the idea to construct the mosque came from President Soeharto, who was saddened by the small, dilapidated mosque in the center of the garden when he visited Bogor three years ago.
Construction of the mosque began in June last year. (bsr)