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.