Monday, March 29, 2010

Gayus, theTax Man

On 19 March 2010, former Chief of Detectives of the National Police Susno Duadji told the media about some middlemen involved in Tax violations.

One of them was Gayus Tambunan (30), officer of the Tax Dispute Tribunal of the Directorate of Tax, who in spite of his low official salary was known to have a bank deposit of Rp 25 Billion, luxurious house and cars.

Actually, the above case has been tried by the District Court in Tangerang, Banten, who acquitted Gayus. But Susno revealed that only Rp 400 million of was recovered, while the other Rp 24.5 Billion is still a mystery.

Earlier, Gayus told the Police that the Rp 24.5 Billion belongs to Andi Kosasih. a businessman, for property purchase. 

Last Wednesday, two days before the Police named Gayus a Supect, Gayus left Indonesia with his wife (a staff of Jakarta regional parliament) to Singapore, a country that has not extradition treaty with Indonesia.

This case has made many Tax payers very angry and protested by opening accounts in the social media Facebook that urged people not to pay tax to protest the foul play at the Tax office.

For details, please click here, here, here, here, here and here, 

Considering that Tax is a very important source of income for Indonesia, I hope that this case would be investigated openly and thoroughly, so that the people in general and taxpayers in particular would still have trust on the government. 
However, I hope that said investigation would not divert the law enforcement's consentration  from the mysterious Rp 6.7 Trillion bail out of Bank Century.   

Photo : Courtesy of VivaNews.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Normally tax departments are able to take action with impunity. Here in NZ there were a number of cases of suicide after Inland revenue department investigations. The previous Labour Government forced changes which made it easier for people under investigation to challenge the IRD's decisions. Indonesia should give its tax office the powers to chase defaulters too.

Unknown said...

Peter,
The way NZ handled Tax cases that you have mentioned could be used as good example for Indonesia.
Especially when Tax officers are involved in the violations.

Yoan Ricardo Sinaga said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Yoan Ricardo Sinaga said...

another conspiracy! ckckckckckc...

Unknown said...

Pieces of My Thoughts,
Yes, we are facing another conspiracy

colson said...

Wow, 25 billion! Not bad for a mediocre civil servant. Only thirty y/o and that rich!

So,money is still the root of all evil? And a poor system of checks and balances doesn't help either, I guess. Plus a lenient culture in as far as professional ethics is concerned.

Unknown said...

Colson,
You are unfortunately right.
One can imagine how much received by 10 of his superior officers that have just been dismissed from their positions.

This case is diverting people's opinion from the Rp 6.7 Trillion Bank Century mysterious bailout.

Bukan Sekedar Blogger Bertuah said...

people degger....must kill

Unknown said...

Bukan Sekedar Blog,
Let us hope that the law enforcement agencies (KPK,Police,Prosecutor) will finally have this case solved as soon as possible.

Unknown said...

By right his passport would have been withhold since he is under investigation.I dont know if that ruling applies in Indonesia.

Unknown said...

Umihoney,
He carried a passport with fake ID stating that he is not a civil servant. After he left the immigration canceled it. This afternoon the police brought him back to Jakarta.