48 Percent Of Vehicle Owners In Riau Islands Are Still Lazy To Pay Taxes, Bapenda Continues To Provide Stimulus

Head of the Regional Revenue Agency for the Riau Islands Province, Reni Yusneli/Via ANTARA

TANJUNGPINANG - Head of the Regional Revenue Agency (Bapenda) of the Riau Islands Province, Reni Yusneli, revealed that 48 percent of vehicle owners have not complied with paying taxes. Local governments provide a stimulus so that taxpayers are interested in paying.

"Every year we carry out a survey of satisfaction and compliance of vehicle taxpayers. The results are still relatively low, unsatisfactory. Only 52 percent of vehicle owners are obedient to paying taxes," said Reni in Tanjungpinang, Antara, Friday, July 15.

The former Acting Secretary of the Riau Islands Regional Secretariat stated that the stimulus provided was in the form of a program to abolish vehicle tax sanctions and other relief.

This year, the entire Samsat in Riau Islands has twice canceled vehicle taxes and other reliefs in order to ease the burden on the community and encourage an increase in regional income.

"Recognizing taxpayers to pay their obligations on time is not easy, so we need to take policies so that they are interested in paying taxes, such as abolishing sanctions due to late paying taxes," he said.

Reni explained that she did not have the capacity to force vehicle owners to pay vehicle taxes on time, except in raids with the police. "We do not have the authority to detain vehicles, except for the police in raid operations, for example," he said.

Although the level of compliance of vehicle owners in paying vehicle taxes has not yet reached 100 percent, the target for local revenue from vehicle taxes has so far reached the target. The revenue target from vehicle tax in 2022 is IDR1.1 trillion, the highest compared to other sources of local revenue.

"Now it has reached 60 percent of more than Rp1.1 trillion. We are optimistic that we will exceed the target by the end of 2022," he said.

Reni predicts the Riau Islands DPRD Budget Agency and regional heads will increase the revenue target from vehicle taxes in the revised budget.

"Looking at the current achievements, there is a potential for a revision of the vehicle tax revenue target. We think it is possible as long as it is realistic," he said.