BPK wants to expand its audit coverage on Freeport

State audit agency BPK has called for an expansion of its audit coverage on Freeport Indonesia to ensure that the state income both from royalties and taxes could be well detected, Koran Tempo reported Monday.

The agency's senior auditor I Gde Agung Rai, said in Jakarta that BPK is at present allowed only to audit state income from non-tax sector, particularly from Freeport's royalties, thereby making the state income from tax payment left unchecked.

"BPK should be in the future allowed also to audit the state income from the company's taxes because from this sector we will be able to audit the company's overall revenues," he said.

He therefore called on the government to revise its contract with Freeport so that the government would be able to get an optimal result from the company's royalty and tax payment, and more importantly to prevent any forms of deviation in the payment of royalty and taxes. (*)