Minister of Viewpoint

The Finance Ministry of has recently introduced a new regulation (PMK.02/PMK.03/2010), providing guidelines for all taxpayers on the deductibility of promotional expenses. The new regulation also revokes an existing regulation which placed a cap on the deductibility of pro-motional expenses for taxpayers in the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries. This new regulation applies equally to all taxpayers, and introduces an extra administrative requirement for taxpayers who seek to deduct promotional expenses. Further, it applies with retrospective effect from Jan. 1 2009, and will therefore impact on tax returns currently being prepared by taxpayers for lodgment by the April 30 deadline. The new regulation considers promotional expenses to be those which are spent in order to introduce customers to a product, suggest the usage of a product to customers, and/or increase/maintain sales. Specifically, the regulation identifies the promotional expenses which can be deducted as bein...

Just recently, two Chinese intellectuals expressed their sorrow about how social ethics in China were deteriorating, and how the world merely looked on. With the Middle Kingdom getting increasingly powerful on the most strategic platforms of our planet: economics, politics, military and, last but not least, space and information technology, the world actually cannot afford to simply watch complacently. Prominent architect-cum-artist Ai Weiwei described the inhuman treatment he suffered from the Chinese law enforcers while in detention and afterward (“Voice of Reason”, Newsweek, Nov. 21). Novelist Yu Hua demonstrated in his work China In Ten Words how the Communist Party’s manipulation of the social fabric resulted in 1.3 billion people in the world having little place in the same world (“The China Primer”, Time, Dec. 5). It is true that Ai Weiwei has been pretty straight with his criticism of the hypocrisy of Western leaders. While saying “It’s getting worse, and it will keep get...