2016 MARKED CRACK-DOWN ON ILLEGAL LEVIES

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Dec 19 (Antara) - Corruption and illegal levies committed to stealing state money that could be used for funding national development have been a common practice in Indonesia since time immemorial.          Corruption is rampant among officials in the upper levels, while illegal levies are mostly issued at lower levels, or even in the grass roots, particularly in the public service sector.          In response to corruption, the government of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri set up the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in 2002 to fight corruption throughout the country.           Since then, the KPK has sent many corrupt high ranking officials, politicians, law enforcement officials, and others to jails.           However, while corruption still continues to take place, illegal levies, which are imposed upon those in the public service sector, remain rampant across the country.           Therefore, the government last October began staging a war against illegal fees and formed what is call 'Satgas Saber Pungli' or illegal levies eradication task force.           President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) set up the Stagas Saber Pungli on October 28, 2016 to fight illegal levies at the lower levels, in tandem with the fight against corruption by the KPK at the upper levels.

GOVT GOES ALL OUT TO CURB ILLEGAL LEVIES

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Oct 24 (Antara) - Illegal levies have been a chronic problem afflicting various public services in many government agencies, including in the Ministry of Transportation.         It is not only the state that suffers losses as a result of such illegal gratification, but also businesses and people as a whole.         At the ports, such losses could be to the tune of Rp3 trillion per annum, according to an estimate arrived at by the Electronic Business Association (Gabel). Arnaldi Nasrum posted this information in the Kompasiana column in June last year.        The industry could be annually suffering a Rp12 trillion loss as a result of losing market share. This is based on the fact that the value of the electronic market has been calculated as Rp27.7 trillion.         Now, the government is going all out to curb such illegal levies in various institutions. Police arrested officials after they were caught red handed while collecting illegal levies at the Ministry of Transportation premises earlier this month.          "We discussed the operation mounted against illegal levies (OPP). We received a report from the National Police chief that some officials of the Ministry of Transportation were arrested on charges of illegal levies on shipment documents," President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) confirmed after inspecting the search operation at the Ministry of Transportation's premises on October 11.