Government Should Drop Tax Plan on Toll Fares : YLKI

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The government should drop its plan to impose a 10-percent added-value tax on toll road fares because the toll road operators have not yet provided good services, a consumer protection activist said.

"The toll road operators have yet to meet the required minimum service standard. The average speed of vehicles on toll roads is now declining. Vehicle queues at toll gates are increasingly snaking down," Tulus Abadi of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI), said in a press statement here on Thursday.

The toll road infrastructure is also bad. Many potholes are found on the toll roads. Thus, the imposition of a 10-percent tax is inappropriate. Besides, he said, the imposition of the tax will have impact on the rise of logistics. It will eventually affect consumers as prices of goods and other basic necessities will increase.    "The imposition of the added-value tax adversely runs counter to the government's policy to reduce logistics cost," Tulus Abadi added.

He said that the imposition of the tax is basically a covert toll fare increase. It can even be a double increase as the toll fares have an annual increase in certain sections. "If the toll road fares are raised and then the tax is imposed it means that the increase has been double. This violates the law on traffic and land transportation as well as the government regulation on toll road," he stressed.

According to Tulus, the government should not burden the people with taxes in various sectors for the sake of increasing state receipts from the tax sector amounting to Rp1,300 trillion.

In the meantime, Deputy Finance Minister Wardiamo said on Wednesday the imposition of a 10 percent value-added tax on toll road fares from April 1 will not affect the prices of goods and basic necessities. (WDY)