Measures planned to fight bad importers<\/p>\n
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade
\nhave agreed to work together to suppress bad importers who have
\ncaused the state huge losses in import tax revenues.<\/p>\n
Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed last week,
\nthe two ministries will take up a number of measures to fight the
\ncrooked businessmen.<\/p>\n
Details of the measures are not yet available as the
\ndirectorate general of customs and excise, which is under the
\nfinance ministry, and the directorate general of international
\ntrade, which is under the industry and trade ministry, have yet
\nto work them out.<\/p>\n
Susiwiyono, spokesman of the directorate general of customs
\nand excise, however, has mentioned that included among the
\nplanned measures is a verification process on importers'
\nidentities and addresses, compiled by the directorate general of
\ninternational trade as the single authority in issuing import
\nlicenses.<\/p>\n
The verification process would mainly focus on field
\nmonitoring activities by customs officials to ensure that the
\naddresses and identities submitted by importers in applying for
\ntheir licenses are accurate and true, Susiwiyono said.<\/p>\n
He said that field monitoring activities should be undertaken
\nprior to issuing import licenses, but that this had often been
\nneglected by the directorate general of international trade.
\nUnder this measure, customs officials would also examine the
\noperation of importers, he explained further.<\/p>\n
The output of the monitoring is that importers would then be
\nclassified accordingly into low- or high-risk categories.<\/p>\n
The customs office, moreover, will have the authority to
\nreject bad importers from clearing their goods, even if they have
\nan import license. The office would also file a report at the
\ndirectorate general of international trade to consider
\nappropriate punishment for such importers.<\/p>\n
The customs office had previously complained that some of the
\naddresses of importers, as gathered by the directorate general of
\ninternational trade, turned out to be false.<\/p>\n
Because of this, customs officials had been unable to track
\nbad importers who had underpaid their import duties and taxes as
\nrequired by the country's self-assessment tax system.<\/p>\n
A report printed in this paper previously said that the state
\nhad suffered some Rp 25 trillion in revenue losses during the
\npast three years because of the tax arrears. This means that on
\naverage, Indonesia has suffered losses amounting to Rp 8 trillion
\nannually, or twice the budget allocated to help the poor survive
\nthe current hike in utility prices.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the finance ministry, under pressure to collect
\nrevenue for the state budget, issued a decree requiring all
\nimporters to obtain licenses from the directorate general of
\ncustoms and excise also. However, this move was protested by the
\nMinistry of Industry and Trade, which insisted that import
\nlicensing was under its authority.<\/p>\n
Under the new MoU, the finance ministry finally agreed to keep
\nthe import licensing authority within the Ministry of Industry
\nand Trade, but the two agreed to design a new import licensing
\nprocedure to ensure that importers would not submit falsified
\ndocuments when applying for their licenses.<\/p>\n
Thus far, details on the new procedure are still being
\ndiscussed, but a source at the customs office said the procedure
\nwould establish the customs office as the first gate of import
\nlicensing.<\/p>\n
The source said that importers wishing to obtain licenses from
\nthe directorate general of international trade must first obtain
\na letter of recommendation from the directorate general of
\ncustoms and excise.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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