Tax hurts cacao exports

JAKARTA (JP): The reimposition of a local tax on cacao bean exports in Central Sulawesi in April has led to a drastic fall in exports, Antara said yesterday.

Achrul Udaya, Palu branch manager of the state-owned surveyor company Sucofindo, told the news agency that many exporters had said they were quitting the export business altogether unless the provincial administration waived the tax.

He called on the administration to reconsider the tax.

The Central Sulawesi administration in April reimposed the Rp 15 per kilogram tax on cacao bean exports.

Achrul said that before April, exports from the province averaged between 6,000 tons and 7,000 tons a month. "The volume fell to 2,000 tons in May, and to 1,000 tons in June. There have been no exports in July," he said.

At this rate, the province's 1997 export target of 75,000 tons would not be realized, he said.

Achrul said the administration had eliminated the cacao tax in 1994 to boost exports. "Then, export volume rose, and (the commodity) contributed 60 percent of the province's export earnings between 1994 and 1996."

Chief administrator of Pantoloan Port in Palu, Putu Dewakartama, confirmed that fewer foreign ships had come to Palu in the last three months.

"We used to have three or five foreign ships a week coming here to load goods. This month, not a single foreign ship arrived," he said. (08)