Tommy skips tax debts as document missing

JAKARTA (JP): With the mysterious disappearance of a court document, Indonesia's most wanted fugitive, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, has managed to avoid the payment of Rp 3.2 trillion (US$282 million) in tax debts, Minister of Finance Rizal Ramli said on Friday.

Rizal said that the government could not hold Tommy's automotive company PT Timor Putra Nasional responsible for its tax debt because the Supreme Court verdict from the case had gone missing.

"This is actually a very strange situation. We have the decision from the Supreme Court for Tommy's company to pay the Rp 3.2 trillion in tax, but somehow, somewhere along the line, the document has gone," Rizal said after attending a meeting at the office of Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Timor Putra was tasked by former president Soeharto, Tommy's father, with producing a national car, the Timor. Instead of producing the Timor in Indonesia, Timor Putra imported them from South Korea, with import duties and other taxes being exempted.

Following the fall of Soeharto, the government demanded Timor Putra pay the duties and taxes as the company could not meet the local content requirement set by the government.

The government and Timor Putra then became engaged in a court battle, which was won by the government.

"The copy of the letter has been received by the company, but we cannot find the original letter. We have to look for it," Rizal remarked at the press conference, also attended by Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Agum Gumelar.

Agum said the government would try to trace the missing document and the case would be one of the topics to be discussed in the upcoming coordination meeting among ministers next week.

Without the original document, Rizal said, the government could not force Timor Putra to pay the tax arrears.

"You see 'the player' is very clever in this country. Even a document can go missing. This sort of thing can only happen in the Republic of Indonesia," Rizal asserted.

"Tommy is very clever, not only can he as a person go missing, he can also make a document disappear with him," he added.

Tommy is still on the run after being officially declared a fugitive in November last year when he fled from an imminent 18- month jail term for graft.

Former attorney general Marzuki Darusman assured that Tommy was still somewhere in the capital.

City Police Chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob said on Friday that he could not care less what Marzuki had to say about Tommy Soeharto.

"Marzuki Darusman can talk until his lips tear up. The fact is we are still scouring the capital for Tommy," Sofjan said on Friday morning.

Separately, National Police spokesman Didi Widayadi urged the people to inform the police, and not talk to the press, should they have information about Tommy's whereabouts.

"If the press reports this, Tommy is sure to escape again. It is better that anybody who has information about Tommy should directly report it to the police." (dja/ylt)