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Jakarta Post

Agency installs data capture devices at restaurants, hotels

The Jakarta Tax Agency is installing 5,555 Point of Sale (POS) devices in restaurants and non-star hotels to improve tax compliance by recording and sending transaction data directly to the agency’s data center

Corry Elyda (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, December 31, 2015

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Agency installs data capture devices at restaurants, hotels

T

he Jakarta Tax Agency is installing 5,555 Point of Sale (POS) devices in restaurants and non-star hotels to improve tax compliance by recording and sending transaction data directly to the agency'€™s data center.

Jakarta Tax Agency head Agus Bambang Setyowidodo said with the online system, taxpayers did not need to meet with tax officials. '€œIt will minimize the possibility of tax fraud,'€ Agus said during the first installation at Pelangi restaurant in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

He added that restaurant and hotel owners would transfer the collected tax funds to the city each month through 12 banks cooperating with the agency.

'€œWe have the initial data on how much the owners should pay in taxes for their [restaurant or hotel],'€ he said.

According to Agus, restaurants obliged to pay taxes were the ones with a total transaction value of more than Rp 200 million (US$14,488).

The tax agency head said his agency was starting to install the devices and aimed to complete the installation of all 5,555 POS devices in February.

Agus said the agency had a total of 10,900 taxpayers among restaurants, hotels and entertainment businesses in the capital city.

'€œPOS devices have been installed in around 4,600 places by state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia [BRI],'€ he said.

He added that BRI initially wanted to cover all businesses in question, but since 2013, the company could only cover around 4,600 places. '€œHence, we allocated Rp 46 billion to buy the devices and extend the system to cover the rest,'€ he said.

Pelangi owner Mince Phieter said she had proposed online system seven years ago.

'€œI used to work at banks for 25 years. I know that the online system is the best method to collect taxes,'€ she said, adding that the system would help her keep track of transactions and the income of her restaurant.

Mince said another major reason why she wanted to use an online system was because meeting with tax officers for audits was troublesome for her.

'€œHonestly, I do not like meeting with tax officers. Often, they do not believe my data and my information. They sometimes act like police officers,'€ she said.

Mince expressed hope that the online system would make it easier for her to fulfill her obligation as a taxpayer.

She also hoped that the city administration would improve facilities to ease the methods for taxpayers to pay their dues.

'€œWe have been diligently paying our taxes, but we barely see any development or service improvement,'€ she said.

She also suggested the city administration implement a progressive tax. '€œSo the tax for people who buy a bowl of noodle and people who eat at an expensive hotel should be different,'€ she said.

Judi Achmadi, the CEO of information technology company Telkomsigma, which provides the system, said the system used cellphone signals to transmit the data.

'€œThe server from the restaurant will send the data to the server at the tax agency,'€ he said.

He added that the POS device was equipped with a battery and could still record data while the signal was disturbed and would send it after the signal was restored.

The Jakarta Tax Agency recorded Rp 2.25 trillion in restaurant taxes, surpassing its target of Rp 2.1 trillion as of Tuesday, while taxes collected from hotels amounted to around Rp 1.4 trillion, slightly lower than the targeted Rp 1.5 trillion.

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