Airport to speed up custims clearance

Airport to speed up custims clearance

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Directorate General of Customs and Excise signed on
Thursday a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with logistics firm
Soewarna Business Park to speed up the clearance of imported
goods at Soekarno-Hatta airport for business park tenants.

Under the "lease-line" MOU, starting on April 1 computers at
Soewarna will be connected online with computers at the customs
office at the airport in Cengkareng.

This will allow Soewarna's tenants quickly to check on the
status of their imported goods.

Soewarna is 30 percent owned by Japanese firm Nissho Iwai and
70 percent by local firm PT Sangraha Daksamitra.

There are currently 28 companies at Soewarna's Cengkareng
warehousing and office complex, including FIN Cargo, Global
Pasific Logistic (Airborne), Lufthansa Cargo and Monang Sianipar
Abadi (MSA Cargo).

Other logistics companies in Cengkareng, including TNT, FedEx,
DHL and CardigExpress, have established their own on-line systems
to enable importers to clear their goods with fewer hassles.

With this lease-line agreement, Soewarna's tenants will be
able to check via computers at their respective offices whether
their imported goods have been cleared by the customs office.

Importers used to have to go back and forth between the
Soewarna warehousing and office complex and the customs office to
process and complete all necessary documents, including import
notices and clearance documents.

"Thus, in practice, importers will be able to cut their travel
time and cut transportation costs by half," Soewarna senior
general manager Ishak Chandra said.

The head of the Soekarno-Hatta Customs and Excise Office,
Novrial, said that under the new system, a physical examination
of imported goods would be done based on profiles of the
companies and commodities.

"If a company is known to be very compliant and the commodity
that is being imported is low-risk, then the company can enjoy
fast-track import clearance facilities, known as 'green lane,'"
he said.