T

he Jakarta Tax Agency has planned to use drones to get details about taxpayers’ property values in order to maximize tax revenue, a policy that raises privacy issues among taxpayers and property law experts.

While appreciating the deployment of breakthrough technology in tax collection, businessman Helmi Abidin expected the policy would have an accompanying regulation guaranteeing the use of the drones would not go beyond recording properties for the purpose of tax collection.

“I hope it [the recorded information] will only be used internally and the drones will not invade people’s privacy,” Helmi, who runs a travel agency business in Central Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Similarly, Budy Sugandi, who leads an IT company at Pondok Cabe, South Jakarta, said he had no problem with the planned policy but expressed concerns that it might interfere with people’s privacy should there not be clear limitations for the drones.

The Jakarta Tax Agency head Edi Sumantri said that the drones would record every detail of taxpayers’ properties. “If it is a restaurant, we will know the size of the building and even the number of chairs,” he said on Monday, but failed to elaborate on the details of the plan and how the agency would execute it.

The use of drones to map properties and to identify taxation objects has been applied in other countries, for example, several cities in India, especially when identifying land.

Teuku Nasrullah, a property law expert from University of Indonesia, said there should not be any problem with implementing this here in Indonesia, especially when it was done for the public good.

However, he warned that similar to the taxation law, which prohibits any party from revealing a person’s tax record to the public, the administration should restrict the drones’ image information to the purpose of tax collection.

“Although it is done for the public good, there should be a procedure [in implementing the policy],” Teuku told the Post.

He said confidential record keeping will protect the privacy of taxpayers.

Article 34 Law No. 6/1983 on taxation procedures prohibits tax officers from revealing tax information belonging to a taxpayer. An officer found guilty of violating this law could be jailed for up to six months, according to article 41 of the law.

Similarly, article 28 of the Constitution (UUD 1945) protects citizens and their property from possible threats.

The Jakarta administration has struggled to increase tax revenue as it has failed to reach its tax collection target in recent years. Last year, the administration could only collect 96 percent of the Rp 33.1 trillion (US$2.47 billion) target from tax revenue. This year, its target has increased to Rp 35.2 trillion despite of the unmet taxation target last year.

During Monday’s meeting, the Jakarta administration said among factors contributing to ineffective taxation were tax evaders and inadequate information about taxed properties.