TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said he was ready to discuss his intent to scrap taxes on the city’s popular sidewalk food stalls—known locally as warteg—with the Jakarta Regional Legislative Council (DPRD DKI Jakarta). The Regional Regulation No. 11 on restaurant taxes stipulates restaurants with an annual turnover exceeding Rp200 million are required to pay taxes.
“As for the regulation, we will have a political discussion with the DPRD. We have prepared that,” Jokowi said at the City Hall, yesterday.
The discussion is in response to some DPRD lawmakers’ request that the governor must have preliminary talks with the DPRD prior to revising the regulation. The governor reiterated his intent to revise the regulation on Sunday at the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) central executive board headquarters in Lenteng Agung, South Jakarta.
"I don’t think we should levy taxes on small-scale businesses like warteg,” said the governor, who visited a warteg in Pulomas, East Jakarta, with former president and PDI-P chair Megawati Soekarnoputri a day before.
Jakarta Tax Services Agency chief Iwan Setiawandi admitted his agency had yet to impose taxes on warteg since the regulation took effect in late 2011. Iwan said the agency was prioritizing levying taxes on large-scale restaurants, whose numbers in the capital—according to him—had reached around 9,000.
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