Tax judges hesitant to make hearings public

Tax judges hesitant to make hearings public

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Although the new Tax Tribunal Law ruled that hearings on tax
dispute cases at the tribunal must be open to the public, judges
who, for years were accustomed to settling tax disputes behind
closed doors, are still reluctant to let the public and the press
attend the hearings.

This was evident at a Thursday hearing to settle an income tax
dispute worth Rp 1.16 billion (US$130,000) between the tax office
and investment firm PT Reksadana Persada.

When The Jakarta Post visited the tribunal to cover the
session, it had to struggle through several bureaucratic
procedures set up by the judges despite placards outside the
court rooms saying that the hearing session was open to the
public.

The secretary of the court, at first, forbade the Post from
attending the session arguing that it was not for the public.
But after showing a schedule paper which clearly said that the
session was open to the public, the court official reluctantly
agreed to allow the Post in.

Each court room at the Tax Tribunal has its own court
secretary, who has the authority to prevent visitors from
entering.

Before attending the hearing, the court secretary would ask
every visitor his or her intention to participate in the hearing.
He will then ask the presiding judge if such person was to be
permitted.

Once inside the court room, the presiding judge will again ask
the identity of all visitors.

Such bureaucratic hurdles -- even intimidation -- surely would
discourage some people from attending the tribunal.

The Tax Tribunal was launched on April 12 this year to end the
role of the Tax Dispute Settlement Agency (BPSP) in settling
disputes between the tax office and taxpayers, both corporate and
individual. For years, BPSP, a unit under the finance ministry,
settled tax disputes behind closed doors. This had raised
concern of irregularities.

In a bid to eliminate closed-door deals and irregularities, an
independent Tax Tribunal was launched, with its hearing sessions
open to the public.

The tribunal held its first hearing one month ago.

On Thursday, the tribunal held hearings on 18 tax dispute
cases. Tribunal officials said that it could hold hearings for
up to 20 cases daily.

Meanwhile, companies involved in a tax dispute welcomed the
policy of opening the hearing to the public, contrary to previous
reports, which said that the corporate taxpayers were concerned
that an open hearing process would expose confidential
information to business competitors.

"We do not see any harm for our company if the court hearing
is open to the public," said Erasti, an official of state-owned
pharmaceutical firm PT Kimia Farma, which had been in a dispute
with the directorate general of customs over some Rp 14 trillion
worth of import duties.

She said that allowing the public to participate in the
hearing process would help ensure transparency.