IO, Surabaya – Growing presence of billboards, especially within Surabaya’s perimeters, is often not proportional with billboard tax revenues paid to authorities, thus creating new problems. Answering to this case, three students from ITS Department of Computer Engineering created the Siklame application as one proposed solution (9/4).
Yusuf Umar Hanafi, Head of Siklame team, works along with Dito Prabowo and Wahyu Santoso. He explains that the most common causes of this issue are taxpayers’ own ignorance. “Officers need to be deployed to record and double-check billboard status, from the bill to the expiry date,” he said.
Currently, tax billing for advertisements is still paper-based, resulting in a longer data acquisition process. “If in a certain region there are more than ten billboards, surely officers will face multiple difficulties at the very same time,” said Yusuf.
Using Siklame, he continued, officers will be provided with clear and easy data collection protocol. First, tenants need to file a permit with the related state agency. Afterwards, officials will enter verified billboard data into the system and later field officers only need online validation.
“Field officers only need to observe the billboard’s placement or any related activities, then tick the checklist data in Siklame, based on its permit issuance. Saving time and effort is a prominent advantage,” said Yusuf.
In addition to billboard verification, this application also contains online tax payment features, as well as a channel for reporting illegal advertising. “For example, if field officers discover illegal billboard installations, they will capture the location and immediately report it to responsible authorities,” he said.
Yusuf hopes that in the future they will be able to further develop this promising application. “Currently development is hampered by connection flaws, but this will soon be fixed,” he concluded. (ITS)