TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Metro Jaya Police is investigating corruption in building and land acquisition tax (BPHTB) with the tax object being a land owned by PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro). Head vice Corporate Secretary of PT Jakpro, Syachrial Syarif said that the investigator had examined several people within the state-owned company.

"Since the end of 2022, there has been a summon by the Police," he said when contacted by Tempo, Saturday, January 28, 2023.

Tempo has received documents showing the Metro Jaya police are investigating allegations of corruption in connection to the payment through BPHTB by Jakpro. The object of the tax is land located in alan Senopati 72, RT 009/RW 003, Selong, Kebayoran Baru District, South Jakarta.

The suspected tax payment was not under the 2022 Regional Tax Deposit Letter (SSPD)-BPHTB. The impact was detrimental to Jakarta's regional finances considering that the tax was expended with Jakpro cash.

According to Syachrial, Jakpro has paid Rp18 billion in taxes in 2022. The Jakarta BUMD only needed to pay Rp4 billion in taxes.

"We only found out later that it should have been Rp4 billion. We have managed it before with a much larger amount than that," he explained.

The BPHTB payments, he continued, were only made once when the company legally acquired the assets. Jakpro has also received a land ownership certificate which was originally under the name of the Jakarta Provincial Government (Pemprov).

Syachrial added that several people who had direct contact with the tax payment process had been investigated by the police, including himself as the authority needed information from Syachrial as the Corporate Secretary of Jakpro.

At the time, Syachrial had just joined PT Jakpro in the fourth quarter of 2022, thus he was not aware of any tax inflation or markup.

"I was only summoned once, the rest were done by a colleague who carried out the (tax payment) process," he said.

The investigation process at Metro Jaya Police is still ongoing. The Director of the Special Criminal Investigation Unit, Chief Commissioner Auliansyah Lubis has not yet responded to WhatsApp messages or telephone calls from the Tempo media crew.

Tempo has also attempted to request information from the Head of Sub-Director V of the Corruption division of the Directorate of Special Criminal Investigation on Regional Budget, Wisnu Wardana, but there has been no detailed information regarding the alleged corruption within Jakpro.

IHSAN RELIUBUN | IMAJI LASAHIDO (INTERN)

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