House to discuss tax on windfall oil profit

The House of Representatives? special committee for taxation laws is scheduled to discuss the possibility of introducing additional tax on windfall profits received by oil and gas producers from the surging crude oil prices, Kompas reported Friday.

?It has not been included in the deliberation list, but there are lots of talk about the possibility of including the tax on windfall oil profit into the income tax bill,? Melchias Markus, the head of the House?s taxation committee which is currently deliberating the income tax bill.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked the country?s major oil and gas producers to share the pain resulting from the surge in oil prices on the state budget during a closed meeting in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The President did not explicitly asked the oil and gas producers to pay additional tax on the windfall they received from the rise in oil prices in his speech during the meeting.

But, in his briefing to the press following the meeting, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said that the oil and gas companies needed to share the state budget burden resulting from oil price increase by paying additional tax on their additional income. (*)