Tax Mafia Eradication is Stagnant, DPR Says

With the Gayus Halomoan Tambunan conviction in the tax mafia and judicial mafia case. The cooperation between the Directorate General of Tax (Ditjen Pajak), the National Police (Polri), Attorney General’s Office (AGO), and Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) has lasted nearly four months now. However, the House of Representatives (DPR) view that the tax and judicial mafia eradication Joint Team to be stagnant.

"We are very disappointed with the results," said Aboe Bakar Al Habsyi, member of the Special Committee of Tax Mafia Eradication of DPR, in a hearing with the Joint Team at the DPR Secretariat, in Jakarta, Wednesday (1/6).

Aboe Bakar regretted that 151 companies that are allegedly connected in the tax mafia case with Gayus have not been processed. "Why haven’t more parties been caught by the team? Why did they stop in the Gayus case?" he asked.

Furthermore, Aboe Bakar asserted that DPR will conduct another inquiry (hak angket) on the tax mafia issue, if there is no progress on it.

Several factions at the DPR proposed an inquiry in the previous DPR's session. However, the proposal was rejected by a margin of two votes. The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Functional Group Party (Golkar), and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) were the most vocal factions on this issue. The Democratic Party and other factions rejected the proposal.

On the other hand, Edy Ramli Sitanggang, also a member of the Special Committee from the Democratic Party, was also disappointed with the results from the Joint Team.

He said that the Democratic faction rejected the inquiry in order to make sure the Joint Team could finish its duty without any obstacles.

"If the Joint Team failed to execute its duty, my colleagues would inevitably propose an inquiry," he said.

Mathius Salempang, Deputy Chairman of the Criminal Detective Agency (Bareskrim) at the Polri, admitted that the Police is having difficulties investigating the case. He explained that the 151 companies are related to the tax law case, not criminal law. Therefore, he called on the Ditjen Pajak to investigate the case first.

"If criminal action is found later seen, we are ready to handle it," Mathius asserted.

Fuad Rahmady, Director General of Taxation, requested more time to investigate the tax mafia case. He admits that his institution is having difficulties on this issue. "We are indeed frustrated. We also want to know, where the money came from. Is it from the alleged 151 companies? We are still investigating the case," he concluded.

Posted in: