0 Depok Council looks to double boardinghouse taxes

Boardinghouse owners’ tax burdens are likely to increase, as the Depok City Council urged the Depok has municipal administration to rake in more money from the sector. Deputy Council Speaker Prihandoko told reporters on Friday that there was still some room for the administration to increase boardinghouse tax revenues from Rp 3 billion (US$309,600) in 2012 to Rp 7 billion this year. “The increase in boardinghouse tax revenue is necessary to add to the city’s annual revenues,” Prihandoko said. 

He said the increase in boardinghouse tax revenue would consequently help boost the city’s annual revenue target from Rp 487 billion in 2012 to Rp 500 billion this year. “Depok is a study center and home to more than 100,000 university students, so it makes sense for us to increase our revenues from this sector,” he said. According to Depok’s 2010 bylaw on tax, the owners of boardinghouses with at least 10 rooms are subjected to a 5 percent tax of their monthly income. 

The bylaw also regulates taxes on hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues. Depok Asset and Finance Management Agency head Doddy Setiadi said he was optimistic that the administration would be able to meet the target. “We started this boardinghouse tax in early 2012, so we are still synchronizing our data with the actual number of potential locations,” he said. He said the agency was working on integrating the list of boardinghouse owners with the list of property owners. 

The agency has allocated Rp 9.3 billion for the integration task, he said. Beji district head Syaifuddin Lubis said that his team would support the city administration and was also optimistic that the city would meet its target. He said many of 5,000 boardinghouses in his district had yet to comply with the tax bylaw, which meant that more could be taxed. “We just collected taxes from [boardinghouses] in Pondok Cina, Kukusan and Kemiri subdistricts,” he said. 

“That does not yet include [boardinghouses] in other subdistricts and districts of Depok that could number in the tens of thousands.” Syaifuddin said his district contributed Rp 10 billion in land taxes, Rp 7.5 billion from parking fees and around Rp 2.5 billion from boardinghouse taxes to the city’s coffers in 2012. Beji is a favorite area among university students in search of housing, due to its proximity to three big universities, including the University of Indonesia, where more than 60,000 students attend classes, and Gunadharma University, with more than 20,000 students.

source : the jakarta post