T

he Jakarta administration, in cooperation with the Jakarta Police and city-owned Bank DKI, has launched branch offices of the Vehicle Document Registration Center (Samsat) in district offices to boost vehicle tax income.

Jakarta Tax Agency head Agus Bambang Setyowidodo said during the launch at the Penjaringan district office in North Jakarta on Friday that the center so far could serve vehicle ownership registration extensions and tax payments for taxpayers who paid on time.

'€œThose who are late to pay their taxes should still go to the Samsat at the municipal level,'€ he said. The city has a Samsat in each municipality.

Agus said the service had been implemented in five districts '€” Penjaringan, Kemayoran in Central Jakarta, Kebon Jeruk in West Jakarta, Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta and Pulogadung in East Jakarta.

'€œWe have served 888 vehicle documents in those five districts since opening on Sept. 17,'€ he said, adding that the service had generated Rp 573 million (US$39,920).

Agus said that Jakarta had 8.5 million private vehicles, comprising 2.3 million four-wheeled vehicles and 6.2 million motorcycles.

'€œThe tax income from those vehicles from January to Sept. 17 was around Rp 4.16 trillion, increasing 17.7 percent from last year'€™s Rp 3.55 trillion in the same period,'€ he said.

He added that the increase was good news but the city administration could do better as tax on three million vehicles had not been paid and around 500,000 vehicles had not yet been registered.

'€œWe potentially lost Rp 1.2 trillion from residents who did not pay their vehicle tax this year,'€ he said.

Agus said providing the services at district offices aimed to increase tax income as many people were reluctant to pay their taxes when their Samsat was far from their place of residence.

Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said the branch offices would be separated from the One-Stop Integrated Services (PTSP) centers that take care of business administration in the city.

'€œWe target that all district offices have Samsat services by January 2016,'€ he said, adding that the infrastructure was ready as all district offices already had a good Internet connection.

Ahok said that in the future, the city administration aimed to develop online systems for tax payments, including for Samsat. '€œMost people already have a bank account, so we only need to develop the application, so people do not need to come to the office to pay taxes,'€ he said.

He said that people could simply transfer their taxes into the city administration'€™s bank account. '€œWe plan to execute the program in 2017,'€ he said.

'€œIf Samsat is available at district offices, people do not need to travel far just to pay taxes, so it will also reduce traffic,'€ said Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian who attended the ceremony, adding that it would also encourage vehicle owners to be more disciplined in paying their taxes.