T

he Jakarta administration plans to be more transparent by publishing the taxes online that it receives from restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues.

Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said the city was currently working on a system that would disclose such information. He said he hoped the system would encourage residents to actively monitor the tax sector.

Ahok said several business enterprises allegedly overcharged their customers, asking visitors to pay more for tax than they were required to pay to the city administration. Through this new system, he said, residents would be able to calculate whether or not they were being overcharged.

'€œIf we reveal the amount of tax that they must pay to the city administration, they will think twice before overcharging their customers, since residents can calculate it themselves,'€ Ahok told reporters at City Hall on Thursday.

He went on to say that the city would upload the information online in smartcity.jakarta.go.id and would launch an Android-based smartphone application to allow easier access for gadget savvy residents.

'€œWe have a GPS [global positioning system] map on our Smart City website, which has the location and information for all restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues in Jakarta. The tax information will be available on the website,'€ Ahok said.

Separately, Tax Agency head Agus Bambang Setyowidodo said the move was an effort to provide transparency to residents who had the right to know whether they were being overcharged and whether the taxes they paid went straight to the city administration.

'€œWe have collected tax information data from all restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues and we are prepared to reveal them on our website,'€ Agus told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Thursday.

For further budget transparency, Ahok said, the city administration would cooperate with information and technology expert Ainun Najib, who previously co-developed KawalAPBD.org, a website scrutinizing the two versions of the city budget, and KawalPemilu.org, which helped safeguard the vote recapitulation during last year'€™s presidential election.

'€œI am impressed by Ainun who has developed KawalPemilu and KawalAPBD. And I think Jakarta needs a similar system to safeguard the city budget,'€ Ahok said.

He said he had asked Ainun to develop a system where residents could easily access information regarding the city budget, from deliberation to realization. Ahok said he asked that the system could have real time updates.

'€œI can'€™t monitor the budget by myself. I want Jakartans to take part in scrutinizing the budget. We already have the e-budgeting and e-musrenbang system. We need an e-monitoring system where all information on the city budget is integrated and accessible to the public,'€ he said.

E-musrenbang is expected to keep records and provide public transparency concerning the recommendations for programs proposed during the Regional Development Planning Forums (Musrenbang), which will be used to arrange the city budget draft for the following year.

Ainun said he would seek help from other IT developers who had a similar vision of achieving a transparent bureaucracy and would further discuss the technical format suitable for the city administration.

'€œThere will be a lot of work to do. The city budget needs monitoring from the beginning to the end. We will help monitor the spending and income of the 2015 budget and the deliberation of the 2016 budget,'€ Ainun said.