VP Kalla: Not All Businessmen Listed in Paradise Papers are Bad

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Vice President Jusuf Kalla (JK) said not all business owners listed in Paradise Papers are bad since people could be driven by two different motives to establish a company overseas.

“The first motive is to evade taxes,” Kalla said at the Vice-Presidential Office in Jakarta on Tuesday, November 7.

JK added that the second motive is to expand businesses. For instance, he explained, a business owner would establish a company overseas to get loans from foreign banks and use the fund in the home country.

Read: Companies Belong to Prabowo Sandiaga Named in Paradise Papers

“That is a positive thing. Not everything [related to such a practice] is negative,” Kalla pointed out.

It was reported earlier that a number of Indonesian business owners and politicians are in the list of Appleby and Asiacity Trust’s clients. The findings were released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in a report titled Paradise Papers. Among the names are Prabowo Subianto, Sandiaga Uno, and Thomas Trikasih Lembong.

The ICIJ last year released a report entitled Panama Papers revealing shell companies owned by prominent figures in Indonesia.

This time, as many as 40 out of 215 Indonesians mentioned in the Paradise Papers are politicians and business owners who have significant influences in the country.

Kalla said that business owners are resourceful. Therefore, the vice president believes that establishing companies overseas is not illegal as long as the owners pay taxes.

AMIRULLAH