Jakarta – The Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI) is confident that none of its member companies included in the list of oil palm plantation owners as tax evaders found by Maritime and Investment Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan as all of them have obediently paid taxes.
“I’m very confident that there is no member company of GAPKI included in the list of palm oil companies found evading the taxes. Tax payment receipt is one of the requirements to get the certification of Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO),” GAPKI Chairman Eddy Martono said when asked to comment on the finding of Minister Luhut that owners of around 7.0 million hectare of oil palm plantations did not pay taxes.
“Considering that GAPKI members are oriented towards getting ISPO certification, which requires tax compliance that must be proved with tax receipt, I think it’s not possible for them not to pay taxes,” Eddy told CNNIndonesia.com on Tuesday, 09 May 2023.
According to him, other palm oil companies that are not members of GAPKI should also find it difficult to evade tax payment. It is because the tax compliance is one of the requirements for sustainable production and for getting certification of sustainability.
He said that Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan should provide detailed data on their finding that there are many palm oil companies did not pay taxes. “I think big companies that are already registered by the government are certainly tax compliant,” he said.
“So, it should be made clear on who they are. If they are companies, it’s very difficult for them to evade the taxes. And they can be easily traced if they did not pay taxes,” he said.
Previously, Luhut reported to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) that owners of more than 7.0 million hectares of oil palm plantations have not yet paid their taxes. They found it after asking the finance and development supervisory board (BPKP) to audit the industrial governance of oil palm plantations in Indonesia.
“It is reported that we have a total of 14.6 million hectares of oil palm plantations. But after we check and asked BPKP to conduct auditing, then we found that only 7.3 million hectares that already paid taxes,” he said.
Luhut said that he had also informed Finance Minister Sri Mulyani on the finding. “I asked Minister Sri Mulyani, where are the others? She then asked tax director general to find out the case,” said Luhut.
The finance ministry’s Tax Directorate General’s Counseling, Service and Public Relations Director Dwi Astuti said they would start investigating the tax evasion by first synchronizing data from Minister Luhut with available data of the tax directorate general. “There is a possibility of different data regarding the total acreage of oil palm plantations registered by the tax office as taxable and the data received by Minister Luhut,” she said. (*)
Source: ssas.co.id/cnnindonesia.com
