TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The city’s taxation and retribution body announced it had blocked the titles of 336 luxury cars after it is revealed that these units were registered under another person’s identity.

The agency also discovered that 150 of them - with retail prices above Rp1 billion - are owned by people who are eligible to receive the government subsidy for education; Jakarta Smart Card (KJP).

“KJP holders do not own cars. But their identities are used by other people to purchase luxury cars,” said the city’s disaster mitigation agency head, Faisal Syarifuddin at the Pondok Indah housing complex on Wednesday.

Faisal revealed that there are 1,100 vehicles of this category that has unpaid taxes with 336 of them already blocked due to the use of false identity. As of now, the identities of the extravagant car owners come from a demographic that are eligible to receive many government subsidies such as the aforementioned KJP, zero down payment housing, and social security subsidies (BPJS).

The tax agency has formed a team specially tasked to conduct operations targeting these luxury cars in December. The formation of such a team is deemed important as the total tax arrears amounts to Rp37 billion.

“Out of 1,500 vehicles, only 400 have paid their dues to the government. If the taxes of all the cars are collected, the city can potentially receive Rp48 billion,” he said.

IMAM HAMDI