Blueray Cargo Case, IAW Requests Tax and Customs Data to be Saved

Illustration of bribery (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Indonesian Audit Watch (IAW) asked for the tax and customs data belonging to the corporation that was dragged into the corruption case to be saved. This step is considered important so that the state's rights will not be lost when the company experiences shocks due to legal processes that trap its managers.

This was conveyed by Iskandar Sitorus as the Founding Secretary of IAW in response to the alleged bribery and gratification case in the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DJBC) involving PT Blueray Cargo as a forwarder. According to him, law enforcement must run but the company's administration also needs to be maintained, especially those related to state interests.

"The state must punish corrupt perpetrators. But the state must also ensure that tax data, customs documents, transaction records, PNBP obligations, and workers' rights are not lost when companies experience shocks due to criminal cases," said Iskandar, quoted Monday, June 17.

Iskandar said that companies whose owners or managers are dragged into corruption cases usually face layered problems, ranging from the loss of customer confidence, disruption of internal management to the collapse of company administration.

This condition is considered potentially difficult for the country to calculate tax obligations, import duties, and other potential state revenues.

"If corporations collapse without good governance, the state loses a way to calculate what is its right. Documents are lost, data are not intact, transactions are difficult to verify, and the opportunity to recover losses becomes smaller," he said.

Iskandar also highlighted the need for a clear separation between individual criminal liability and the continuity of corporate legal entities. Forwarders such as Blueray Cargo, for example, are said to have a strategic role in the national logistics chain because they are related to the flow of imported goods, customs documents, import duties, taxes in the context of imports to various trade regulations.

Thus, Iskandar encourages emergency governance for companies that are dragged into corruption cases. This step includes securing documents, documenting assets and liabilities, protecting workers, and mapping state rights.

"Investigators need neat data. Prosecutors need documents that can be tested. The court needs clear facts. The state needs financial recovery. All of this will not be achieved if the legal entity is allowed to collapse completely," he said.

According to Iskandar, the success of eradicating corruption is not only measured by the number of perpetrators who are sentenced, but also the ability of the state to recover losses and maintain economic values that can still be saved.

"When a corporation collapses without governance, what is lost is not only the company's name. What is lost is jobs, taxes, PNBP, state data, business certainty, and the opportunity to recover public losses," he concluded.