Bali Governor Asks Regents Of Illegal Villa Data Not To Pay Taxes

Bali Governor Wayan Koster/DOK Via ANTARA

Bali Governor Wayan Koster asked regents/mayors throughout Bali to immediately record illegal villas and homestays that were detrimental because they did not pay taxes.

"There are many illegal villas in Bali, there are even many tourist homestays staying there and are not subject to restaurant hotel taxes, so it is detrimental, therefore I ask all regents/mayors to file illegal villas and homestays," said Koster in Denpasar as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, May 31.

In the coordination meeting related to tourism attended by regional leaders at the district/city level, Koster admitted that there was no definite number of losses suffered

However, he saw an imbalance between hotel taxes and the number of tourists who came.

"Hotel and restaurant taxes are not linear with the number of tourists because of illegal villas. Now there are illegal villas that suddenly invite guests, don't pay taxes for us in Bali, but only for him," he said.

According to him, if this condition is allowed to happen, it will be a threat to tourism, especially regencies/cities that rely a lot on hotel and restaurant taxes.

"If we allow this illegal behavior, then quality tourists from Europe or good ones who want continuous comfort may not want to come again, then there can be no more hotel and restaurant taxes of up to IDR 3 trillion," said Koster.

Based on PHRI Bali's monitoring, of the total villas on the Island of the Gods, about 30 percent of them are illegal or not registered with associations.

Therefore, Deputy Chairman of PHRI Bali I Gusti Ngurah Rai Suryawijaya urged all entrepreneurs to register their businesses, as well as to enforce them by the tourism task force which was recently formed by the Bali Provincial Government.

"The illegal villa has occurred since 2015, because tourism has not been directed for too long, so now we have to do it. Order first to give permission because so far we can build using an IMB permit," he said.

PHRI Bali sees that so far the licensing data for villas and homestays tends to differ in number in each agency, so that with the encouragement of the Governor of Bali, it is hoped that traditional villages will help in the data collection process.

"That's why you have to sync all the inns in traditional villages, so they don't even miss the land, then involve the village tires to record it," Rai said.