Taxpayers to get single ID number

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta will be the first city in the country where the records of taxpayers will be synchronized in so-called single identity numbers, in an effort to improve the record keeping by the tax office.

The city administration submitted to the Directorate General of Taxation on Wednesday data collected by several agencies on taxpayers.

""By having more synchronized data, the tax office will immediately be able to get information on taxpayers' taxable assets from their telephone or electricity bills,"" City Revenue Agency head Deden Supriadi said at City Hall.

The data submitted to the tax office included tax receipts from vehicle ownership, street illumination, land ownership and other data on the city's population, and business and trade operation permits.

""There is more data that we should be able to provide later but we will submit it after coordinating with the relevant institutions,"" Deden said.

""Jakarta is the first city to build a single identity number system. Hopefully, other provinces will follow suit,"" director general of taxation Hadi Purnomo said.

He emphasized that better data would help his office collect tax as well as to minimize tax evasion.

""We call on taxpayers in the city to fill in their tax reports completely and truthfully. This will automatically boost tax returns in the future,"" he said.

Hadi said that under revenue sharing, the administration would get 20 percent of the tax returns collected from taxpayers in the capital.

""I estimate that with the synchronized data, Jakarta can obtain two or three times more from the current revenue sharing agreement between the central government and the administration,"" he said.

Governor Sutiyoso said it was important for the city to increase its tax revenue.

""Our city has few natural resources, therefore we must find other sources of revenue. One such source is tax returns,"" he said.

In the 2004 city budget, the administration estimated it would receive Rp 4.7 trillion (US$515.92 million) from its tax revenue sharing agreement with the central government, or 37 percent of the total tax revenue of Rp 12.6 trillion.

As of the second week of September, the administration has received Rp 3.7 trillion in tax revenue from the central government, or 77 percent of the estimated total for the year.

Source : http://www.thejakartapost.com

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