TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - News reporting that Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa had summoned Finance Minister M. Chatib Basri in the second week of October, spread fast among the staff of the Directorate General of Tax. Speculation was raised over whether Hatta's question would be related to the account of one of Asian Agri's subsidiary companies in Riau. However, Hatta refuted charges stating that he had intervened in the case.

"I don't even know the company's name," he told Tempo reporter, Y. Tomi Aryanto, when they met at the National Mandate Party (PAN) headquarters two weeks ago. Excerpts of the interview:

Regarding the Asian Agri case, your call to the finance minister showed you were quick to react to the news.

I was not handling the Asian Agri tax case at the time. My concern was to ensure it would not lead to worker layoffs. I had received reports of a palm oil company in Riau in danger of being unable to pay thousands of its workers because their bank account had been blocked. I must prevent all possibilities of creating additional unemployment. I have even created a special desk to manage this problem. Our economy is under a lot of pressure, so this was dangerous.

Where did the report come from?

I called Chatib Basri asking whether he recalled the incident which he had contacted me about when he was in Washington (at the other end of telephone, Chatib Basri had forgotten it). There were workers who would not be getting their salaries in Pekanbaru. I didn't know then the name of the company.

Among Tax Office employees, that phone call was seen as soft pressure, in fact, an effort to intervene in the case. Was it true?

That was clearly not the case. If I had wanted to intervene I would go straight to the tax people or others, not Chatib Basri. Who can pressure Chatib into doing anything?

The tax officials were sensitive because they had heard that President Yudhoyono had summoned Darmin Nasution, to question him about this case.

I don't know about that. Definitely, we would not touch anything involving the law. Go ahead and process it. I wouldn't dare to intervene?