18 May 2007
Tax Officials to Hunt Down Sukanto Tanoto
The Tax Directorate General at the Finance Department will concentrate on hunting down the main players in the Asian Agri Group tax embezzlement case, including the company's owner Sukanto Tanoto and the other shareholders.
Mochamad Tjiptardjo, Director of Tax Intelligence and Investigation at the Finance Department's Tax Directorate General, did not deny the possibility that the Asian Agri's owner could be legally charged.
”If there is proof, then why not? This is already classified as a criminal case,” said Tjiptardjo in Jakarta yesterday (15/5).
“The numbers of the suspects and the amount of the state's losses may increase,” he said
When asked the same question, whether or not the Tax Directorate General would also hunt down Sukanto Tanoto, on a separate occasion, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said, “We'll see how the Tax Directorate General handles the case. But clearly, the government will chase after payment of all the tax debts plus the fines.”
On Monday (14/5), the Tax Directorate General already stated that five Asian Agri Group directors were suspects of tax embezzlement. The five persons' initials are LA, WT, ST, TNK and AN.
Asian Agri is the second biggest holding company in the Grup Raja Garuda Mas – a company owned by Sukanto Tanoto, Indonesia's richest person in 2006 according to Forbes magazine.
According to Tjiptardjo, 18 members of the Tax Directorate General investigation team are working domestically and abroad to search for new findings in the case.
The legal base being used to charge the embezzlers, including those who asked for the manipulation to be carried out, he said, was Decree No. 16/2000 on Tax General Provisions and Procedures.
So far, according to him, the case development was only as far as the involvement of the five Asian Agri directors.
Signs regard new suspects have not yet been reached at this level of the investigation.
It is so far estimated that the state's losses amount to Rp786.3 billion, or around 30 percent from the total funds marked-up by the company which reached Rp2.62 trillion, but this amount could rise.
According to M. Salim, Director of the Attorney General's Office Investigators, the AGO is still analyzing public complaints about Asian Agri’s alleged corruption and tax embezzlement practices.
“We just received the reports last week,” said Salim.
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tempo
Mochamad Tjiptardjo, Director of Tax Intelligence and Investigation at the Finance Department's Tax Directorate General, did not deny the possibility that the Asian Agri's owner could be legally charged.
”If there is proof, then why not? This is already classified as a criminal case,” said Tjiptardjo in Jakarta yesterday (15/5).
“The numbers of the suspects and the amount of the state's losses may increase,” he said
When asked the same question, whether or not the Tax Directorate General would also hunt down Sukanto Tanoto, on a separate occasion, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said, “We'll see how the Tax Directorate General handles the case. But clearly, the government will chase after payment of all the tax debts plus the fines.”
On Monday (14/5), the Tax Directorate General already stated that five Asian Agri Group directors were suspects of tax embezzlement. The five persons' initials are LA, WT, ST, TNK and AN.
Asian Agri is the second biggest holding company in the Grup Raja Garuda Mas – a company owned by Sukanto Tanoto, Indonesia's richest person in 2006 according to Forbes magazine.
According to Tjiptardjo, 18 members of the Tax Directorate General investigation team are working domestically and abroad to search for new findings in the case.
The legal base being used to charge the embezzlers, including those who asked for the manipulation to be carried out, he said, was Decree No. 16/2000 on Tax General Provisions and Procedures.
So far, according to him, the case development was only as far as the involvement of the five Asian Agri directors.
Signs regard new suspects have not yet been reached at this level of the investigation.
It is so far estimated that the state's losses amount to Rp786.3 billion, or around 30 percent from the total funds marked-up by the company which reached Rp2.62 trillion, but this amount could rise.
According to M. Salim, Director of the Attorney General's Office Investigators, the AGO is still analyzing public complaints about Asian Agri’s alleged corruption and tax embezzlement practices.
“We just received the reports last week,” said Salim.
_____
tempo
Labels: Internet News, Money, Tax
