Tax authorities to detain KBC shareholders
Thursday, November 11 2004 - 03:26 AM WIB
The shareholders are the owners of Caithness Energy LLC, FPI Group Inc, Japan's Tomen Power and local partner PT Sumarah Daya Sakti.
Director-General of taxation Hadi Purnomo said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the KBC has committed three tax violations.
First, KBC had not submitted its tax returns for 1998 intentionally. Actually, KBC asked for some time to submit its 1998 tax returns and the tax department granted the permission to delay the submission of the tax return. But until now, it has not yet submitted it.
Secondly, KBC never reported the decision by the international arbitration court, which awarded it a US$271 million compensation in 2001. Under Indonesian tax laws, though it has yet to be paid, that amount is considered as KBC?s income in 2001.
?But KBC never reported it,? Hadi said.
The third violation is non-payment of a Rp 12 billion value added tax since 1999 despite several reminders from tax department to repay it.
Hadi said his department will detain the shareholder who are still in Indonesia.
?As far as the foreign shareholder are concerned, we will seek the extradition of them to Indonesia,? he said,
Earlier, Police declared three people -- two officials of state oil and gas company Pertamina and a U.S. citizen, who is a senor official of KBC -- as suspects in this case.
KBC was closed in 1997 due to Asian financial crisis. But it won arbitration suit against Pertamina, under which, Pertamina must pay $271 million (including interest). (*)