BCA, Tax Directorate General Differ Over Opinion: Jahja

Jakarta (Antara) - The President Director of PT Bank Central Asia (BCA), Jahja Setiaatmaja, stated that the Directorate General of Tax and BCA had different opinions about BCA tax in the fiscal year 1999. "The case in 1999 in essence comes out of differences between the Directorate General of Tax and BCA," he explained at a press conference here on Tuesday. Jahja noted that BCA only carried out the instructions of the finance minister Number 117/KMK.017/1999 and Bank Indonesia governor Number 31/15/KEP/GBI as 92 percent of BCA shares then were held by the government. "We just carried out the instruction to transfer assets namely bad debts and restructured debts including collateral and guarantee to the National Bank Restructuring Agency (BPPN)," he explained. He added that the Directorate General of Tax however, had seen the case as a write-off of non-performing loans. "We have already carried out the instruction letters well and have concrete proof showing that it is a transfer of assets," he asserted. He clarified that if the transaction was a write-off of non-performing loans, the balance of bad loans should have been recorded in the BCA bookkeeping while after the transfers all assets went to BPPN. "So, there is no receivable loss in BCA," he confirmed. Jahja stated that in 2003 there was proof from BPPN that the collateral had been withdrawn worth Rp3.29 trillion and the collateral belonged not to BCA but BPPN. "If they were receivables loss it must be returned to BCA," he reiterated. (*) Reporting by Citro Atmoko