Indonesia on Thursday said it would launch investigations into Google after the technology giant allegedly refused to cooperate with the country’s tax department, an official said.
Google has denied the allegations, declaring it had paid all taxes in Indonesia since opening its Jakarta offices in 2011.
The Indonesian government has repeatedly asserted the California-based company had outstanding tax issues to resolve.
Muhammad Haniv, a senior official with Jakarta’s tax office, said Google had refused a request to allow tax officials to examine its financial statements.
“We are now elevating this to an investigation, because they refused to be examined. This could be classified as a criminal offense,” Haniv told reporters, adding that Google generates tens of millions in advertising revenue, but contributed little in tax.
‘COMPLIANT’
Jason Tedjasukmana, the head of corporate communications for Google Indonesia, said in a statement that the company had always worked closely with the government and had “complied by paying all taxes which apply in Indonesia.”
Jakarta has also applied pressure to other foreign tech behemoths, such as Facebook Inc and Yahoo Inc, over their tax arrangements in Indonesia.
TECH BOOM
Global tech businesses have flooded Indonesia in recent years to capitalize on the exploding number of Internet users in the Southeast Asian nation, which has an enormous population of young people with smartphones.
One-third of Indonesia’s 255 million people have access to the Internet, but analysts say that number is likely to increase as connectivity improves across the archipelago.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure