Dion Bisara, Janeman Latul & Ardian Wibisono – Indonesia's 100 worst tax-dodgers, including a slew of state-owned enterprises and some well-known private and listed companies, owe the state nearly $1.9 billion in back taxes, the Finance Ministry revealed on Thursday.
"As of December 2009, the 100 top tax-dodgers [owed] Rp 17.5 trillion," Tjiptardjo, the ministry's tax chief, told a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission XI, which oversees finance.
"First we will send a warning letter, then we will force them to pay or we will confiscate their assets. Lastly we will freeze their bank accounts. The point is they have to pay," he said.
Tjiptardjo revealed that state-owned enterprises on the list owed Rp 7.6 trillion in unpaid taxes at the end of last year. "In 2009, the total balance of taxes owed by state-owned companies was Rp 8.1 trillion. There were also new tax arrears of Rp 2.3 trillion. They paid Rp 2.8 trillion in 2009, so there is still an outstanding balance of Rp 7.6 trillion," he said.
A Tax Directorate General document distributed to lawmakers showed state oil and gas company PT Pertamina sitting at the top of the list, followed by its subsidiary, Karaha Bodas Co., private pulp and paper firm PT Industri Pulp Lestari and the defunct Indonesian Banking Restructuring Agency.
Also on the list were state lender PT Bank Negara Indonesia, shrimp producer PT Central Proteinaprima (CP Prima), state train operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia, plantation company PT Sampoerna Agro, miner PT Kaltim Prima Coal, cement company PT Holcim Indonesia and flagship air carrier PT Garuda Indonesia.
The document did not reveal how much tax each company owed, nor did it confirm that the ranking was based on the amount owed.
Muhammad Said Didu, secretary for the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry, questioned the figure, saying similar claims were made last year but that the amounts owed turned out to be smaller.
"We need to meet the tax office first to clarify their numbers," Didu told the Globe. "They tend to miscalculate, [mixing up] the numbers of unpaid taxes with disputed taxes."
He said the Finance Ministry had agreed not to levy tax on some unprofitable SOEs undergoing restructuring, such as PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines, until they return to profitability.
In response, CP Prima's corporate communications manager said he was surprised by his company's presence on list and had no knowledge of it. Garuda Indonesia president director Emirsyah Satar claimed Garuda "never has any tax arrears."
BNI president director Gatot Suwondo speculated that the bank's inclusion on the list might be due to confusion over taxation on a Shariah unit.
Bank Bukopin director Tri Joko Prihanto echoed Gatot. "Bukopin is a good tax payer, and the tax we paid is huge," he said.
A September 2009 revision of the law on the value-added tax prevented a double-taxing of murabahah, Islamic trade-finance transactions involving a purchase and deferred-payment resale. But the law's retroactive effects may have confused tax officials when calculating the tax owed, Tri said.
Melchias Markus Mekeng, a Commission XI deputy chairman, said the House would form a working committee to scrutinize how the tax office recorded such huge tax arrears and "how far it has dealt with it."