Tax hurts cacao exports

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)