Coal producers withhold tax payments
Saturday, January 3 2004 - 02:44 AM WIB
The country’s coal producers had withheld tax payment of up to Rp1.125 trillion during the past three consecutive years, according to Director General of Geology and Mineral Resources Simon F. Sembiring.
“For 2002 fiscal year, the taxes withheld by the coal mining company reached Rp500 billion (and another Rp 500 billion in 2001). Up to August, 2003, the total tax payment withheld by the coal producers totaled about Rp125 billion” he said as reported by Bisnis Indonesia on Saturday.
The coal producers withheld valued added tax payment after the government issued a ruling in 2000 that stated coal was no longer taxable.
Sembiring said that this fiscal policy had caused a decline in the tax payment from the mineral sector. State revenues from the mining sector continued to decline to Rp1.1 trillion in 2003 from Rp1.3 trillion in 2002 and Rp1.7 trillion in 2001. (*)