TAX MAFIA INQUIRY MOTION GAINING MORE SUPPORTERS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Feb 3 (ANTARA) - Initiators are optimistic that the House of Representatives (DPR) will pass a House inquiry committee motion they are proposing to investigate alleged tax mafia and flows of defrauded taxes that caused an annual loss of about Rp300 trillion to the state.          "Five factions of the DPR have thrown their support behind the tax inquiry motion so that we are optimistic that the proposal to form an inquiry committee would be endorsed by the DPR in the plenary," Syarifuddin Sudding of the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) who is also one of the initiators said.          The initiators on Wednesday submitted the tax mafia inquiry motion signed by 111 lawmakers to the House of Representatives and  received by Deputy House Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso. It was submitted by its initiators such as legislators Bambang Soesatyo and Nudirman Munir of the Golkar Party faction, Trimedya Panjaitan of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) faction, Ahmad Yani of the United Development Party (PPP) and Lily Wahid of the National Awakening Party (PKB).          It was the second time the proposal for the establishment of the tax mafia inquiry committee motion was submitted to the House. On Monday, January 24 last month, the initiators submitted the proposal which was signed by 30 legislators of the nine House factions to the House leadership.          However, when the House leadership was about to hold a meeting to take a decision on the proposal, seven signatories from the ruling Democrat Party (PD) withdrew their support. Therefore, the House leadership returned the proposal to its initiators to increase the number of its supporters or risk being dropped. After all, two others followed their colleagues to withdraw support, namely one from the Democrat Party and two from the PKB.          Now that the number of its supporters has risen to 111, the proposal was submitted again and its initiators expressed optimism to win House approval.          "After verification we found that a number of 111 legislators from eight House factions have put their signatures and supported the proposal," Syarifuddin Sudding said.          He said that the 111 lawmakers excluded the 10 House members who have withdrawn their support, namely eight from the Democrat Party and two from the PKB.          "Today there are 111 lawmakers who have supported the proposal from various factions and we have submitted it to the House leadership," Sudding said. The largest number of supporters came from the Golkar Party faction (FPG) namely 78 lawmakers.          The second largest came from the PDIP faction (14), PKS (9), PPP (2), National Mandate Party (PAN) and PKB respectively one, Hanura (8) and the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) two members.          Sudding said that FPG had informed that all of its members would support the motion, and so would the PDIP faction. He said five of the nine factions in the House had expressed support to the motion.          The five factions are FPG with total members of 106, PDIP faction (94), Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction (57), Gerindra faction (26) and Hanura faction(17).          "We are optimistic the House will pass the motion as it has won the support of five factions in the House," he added.          He said that if five factions fully support the proposal it meant that the move would get support from 310 House members. There is still additional support from individuals who do not involve their factions.          Sudding said that the tax mafia inquiry motion was submitted to the House with an enclosed document on the audit results of the State Audit Board (BPK) on six tax-payer firms believed to have defrauded taxes.           "We are thankful to the Working Committee on Taxation of the House Commission XI who has asked the BPK to conduct an investigative auditing on tax payers," Sudding said.          Trimedya Panjaitan of the PDIP faction said the aim of legislators in proposing the inquiry motion was to investigate areas where taxes had been leaked. The inquiry committee would trace which firms had defrauded taxes and the flows of the leaked taxes. Efforts would be made how to mend the leakage so that the state revenues from the tax sector would increase.          Lily Wahid of the PKB faction said the inquiry was expected to disclose tax mafia which so far could not be uncovered by law enforcers. It is hoped that the tax mafia case would transparently be made public.          "Initiators want the inquiry committee to have no political interest but an interest how the state revenues could be increased," she said.          She said that if the state revenues from the tax sector were not leaked, Indonesia could be prosperous and needed no external debts.          According to Ahmad Yani of the PPP faction, leakage of the state revenues from the tax sector is estimated to amount to Rp300 trillion per year. This figure is quite big as it accounts for 30 percent of the state budget.          "If this leakage could be stopped Indonesia would be able to carry out better development and need not borrow money from abroad," he said.      (T.A014/A/H-NG/A/S012) 03-02-2011 14:24