Yessar Rosendar & Yohanes Obor

SOE Ministry, IDX Wade Into Tax-Dodger Claims

The State-Owned Enterprises Ministry and the Indonesia Stock Exchange have demanded clarification from the Tax Directorate General about the companies on its list of the nation’s 100 top tax-dodgers, which was released on Thursday.

According to the tax office, the 100 worst offenders owe a total of Rp 17.5 trillion ($1.9 billion), with 17 state-owned companies in total arrears of Rp 7.6 trillion, including PT Pertamina, PT Garuda Indonesia and PT Bank Negara Indonesia.

Muhammad Said Didu, secretary for the SOE Ministry, was critical of the report’s accuracy, saying only 14 companies on the list were tied to the state.

“Televisi Republik Indonesia is not a state-owned company, and Pertamina has been put on the list twice,” he said at a news conference on Friday.

Didu added that some of the state firms were already in the process of settling their tax disputes and that others simply could not afford to pay up due to financial constraints. “There are three state-owned companies that could not pay taxes. They are Merpati, Perkebunan Nusantara XIV and Djakarta Lloyd,” he said.

The SOE Ministry said that it would meet with the Finance Ministry’s tax office regarding the matter, and added that it would facilitate a separate meeting between the state firms in question and the tax office if it was deemed necessary.

“This is an issue that should be quickly resolved and I have delegated the secretary of the ministry to solve this matter,” said Mustafa Abubakar, the SOE minister.

In October, Mochamad Tjiptardjo, the director general of taxes, said a number of prominent state enterprises owed Rp 19.3 trillion in back taxes through September, including rail operator PT Kereta Api and Pertamina. After a meeting with the finance and state enterprises ministries, the claim was revised down to Rp 7 trillion.

Eddy Sugito, director of the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), said it also had questions for the tax office about nine publicly-traded companies that made the list, including state-owned and private firms.

“The bourse sent a letter [on Friday] to get clarification over the listed companies on the tax-dodger list,” he told the Jakarta Globe. He added that some of the companies had denied the tax allegations, so the exchange required written confirmation as well as the amount of arrears for each firm from the tax office.

The publicly traded companies in the tax office’s sights are PT Bank Bukopin, PT Perdana Karya Perkasa, PT Sampoerna Agro, PT Steady Safe, PT Sumalindo Lestari Jaya, PT Holcim Indonesia, PT Central Proteinaprima, PT Pabrik Kertas Tjiwi Kimia and BNI.

Units of listed companies were also counted among the offenders. PT Bukit Makmur Mandiri Utama, a subsidiary of PT Delta Dunia Makmur; PT Salim Ivomas Pratama, a unit of PT Indofood Sukses Makmur; and PT Semen Tonasa, whose parent is PT Semen Gresik, all made the tax office’s list.

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