Jakarta – The Indonesian government wants to collect 3.2 trillion rupiah in unpaid taxes from the fugitive youngest son of former president Suharto but has lost the paperwork. "He has not paid 3.2 trillion rupiah but he is very clever... not only is he missing, even the documents of the supreme court ruling have disappeared," Finance Minister Rizal Ramli said yesterday.

The loss of the original supreme court ruling on the back taxes meant the government had no legal power to force Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra to pay up, he said.

Mr Ramli was speaking after a special meeting of economic and political ministers at Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri's office. He said the letter had gone missing while being delivered some time ago to the office of the director general of taxation in Jakarta.

"Therefore we cannot execute the order to collect the unpaid taxes ... but we're still looking for the original documents," Mr Ramli said. He did not specify whether he was referring to company or income taxes.

Tommy, a 38-year-old millionaire businessman, has been on the run since November 3 of last year when he failed to turn himself in to serve an 18-month jail sentence for graft.

Family friends say Mr Suharto's son has remained in Jakarta. One of Tommy's lawyers, Nudirman Munir, said he had not heard about his client's unpaid taxes, adding that he had no idea of Tommy's whereabouts.

Since taking up his role as finance minister, Mr Ramli has been waging war on tax evaders in his efforts to put money into the state's coffers.