Smuggling rose during general election: Customs<\/p>\n
Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The inflow of smuggled goods to the country surged during the
\nfirst quarter of this year, according to an internal report from
\nthe Directorate General of Customs and Excise.<\/p>\n
While the report did not provide a clear explanation of the
\nreasons for the increase, one business leader said it was due to
\nweaker law enforcement during that period as many were focussing
\non the legislative election, which ended last month.<\/p>\n
However, director of inspection and investigation at the
\ndirectorate Sofyan Permana, said it was the huge size of the
\ndomestic market that lured smugglers to the country.<\/p>\n
\"Smugglers will likely increase the flow of illegal goods to
\nIndonesia this year because it is more beneficial than smuggling
\nto other Asian countries. We have 220 million people, a huge
\nmarket indeed for such goods,\" Sofyan told The Jakarta Post on
\nMonday.<\/p>\n
According to the report, obtained by the Post recently, cases
\nof smuggled rice, sugar, textiles, cigarettes, liquor, and cars
\nin the first quarter of the year increased.<\/p>\n
The report said that customs officials had managed to
\nconfiscate some 1,814 metric tons of smuggled rice and 5,743 tons
\nof sugar during the first quarter of the year, up from 374 metric
\ntons and 5,675 tons respectively in the same period of last year.<\/p>\n
It said that Malaysian businessmen were mostly involved in the
\nsmuggling cases.<\/p>\n
In 2003, the customs office managed to prevent the smuggling
\nof some 1,101 tons of rice and 13,579 tons of sugar.<\/p>\n
Aside from rice and sugar, customs officials had also managed
\nto foil attempts to smuggle in some 10,982 bales of textile
\nproducts during the first quarter, up from 3,157 bales in the
\nsame period last year. Most of the products were smuggled in via
\nSingapore or Malaysia.<\/p>\n
In 2003, a total of 21,092 bales of smuggled textile products
\nwere confiscated by the customs office.<\/p>\n
The smuggling of cigarettes and liquor were also on the rise,
\nwith six cases of smuggled cigarettes and seven cases of smuggled
\nliquor foiled in the first quarter of the year.<\/p>\n
In the same period last year, the customs office only managed
\nto foil one case of cigarette smuggling and four cases of liquor.
\nThe report did not mention the volume.<\/p>\n
During the first quarter of this year, the customs office also
\nmanaged to stop the smuggling of 29 cars, up from eight units in
\nthe same period last year.<\/p>\n
Around 99 percent of the cars were smuggled from Singapore,
\nwhile the remainder, from Malaysia.<\/p>\n
The report said that in 2003, customs managed to prevent 107
\nsmuggled cars from entering the country.<\/p>\n
Chairman of the National Economic Recovery Committee (KPEN)
\nSofjan Wanandi blamed the increasing smuggling cases on weak law
\nenforcement by customs officials, especially during preparation
\nfor the recent legislative election.<\/p>\n
\"All government officials were thinking about the election.
\nMost of them were racing to get bribes from smugglers to be
\ndonated later to certain political parties. This left the
\ncountry's gates wide open for smugglers,\" said Sofjan.<\/p>\n
\"Smugglers increase their activities here because customs
\nofficials are becoming more easily bribed by the day,\" he added.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/smuggling-rose-during-general-election-customs-1447893297",
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