VAT Not to Be Lowered
Thursday, 06 April, 2006 | 17:43 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:According to Vice President Jusuf Kalla, the government will not lower tax rates that must be paid by taxpayers, for example value added tax (VAT), which is only paid once.

Taxes are greatly needed to provide funding for building schools, for health and for infrastructure.

“We want to build schools and hospitals. But sometimes we also want the opposite, to have taxes lowered. This is impossible,” said Kalla in his welcoming speech in Catering Services Expo 2006 yesterday (5/4).

If tax revenues are reduced, the Vice President continued, the government will not be able to build infrastructure or provide other public services.

“So there must be a balance between tax revenues and development,” he said.

Kalla also said he hoped that businesspeople in the catering industry pass on the VAT paid to the tax authorities.

The reason for this was that the taxes collected were not the businesspeoples’ money but actually taxes paid by customers via these businesspeople.

“In fact, you don’t pay anything at all, you’re just asked to assist your customers in paying VAT,” said Kalla.

Sunariyah