Bonded areas reportedly used by smugglers

Bonded areas reportedly used by smugglers

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta

The Directorate General of Customs said on Friday that it had
deployed its officials to closely supervise bonded warehouse
facilities in the wake of reports that they were often being used
by smugglers to stockpile illicit goods.

Sofyan Permana, customs director for inspection and
investigation, told The Jakarta Post that the directorate had
found indication that several businessmen had misused the
facilities to smuggle goods into the country.

"The practices have been out of control since early the first
of the year. We have discovered dozens of bonded warehouses in
Jakarta and Surabaya, belonging to private businesspeople, that
have been used to stockpile smuggled goods," said Sofyan.

He explained that the owners of the warehouses and the others
who rent them were cooperating to allow such practices to occur.

"There are several big companies involved in such practices.
But I cannot name them right now, because we are still
investigating them ... Thus far, no suspects have been processed
over the violation," he said.

By law, all goods in a bonded warehouse are exempted from
taxes, import duties and excise as long as they are intended for
re-export in the form of value-added goods, or to be transferred
as raw materials to bonded zone areas.

Smugglers imported the goods based on normal customs
procedures, but once the goods arrived at the bonded warehouse,
they illegally sneak them out, or make a fake document stating
that the goods are to be processed for export in some other
place.

The smuggled goods are usually include sugar, rice,
pharmaceutical products and toxic chemicals.

The smugglers manage to illegally get the goods out of the
bonded zone by colluding with corrupt customs officials.

Director-General of Customs and Excise Eddy Abdurrachman has
sent around a memo on May 27 stating that all senior customs
officials must closely supervise their people punish those who
colluded with smugglers in misusing the facilities.

Eddy also urged them not to tolerate the violations, and to
revoke the licenses of the bonded warehouse operators involved in
the crime.

As previously reported, the inflow of smuggled goods to the
country has surged during the first quarter of this year through
various means, according to an internal report from the customs
directorate.

While the report did not provide a clear explanation of the
reasons for the increase, analysts and business players believed
that it was due to weaker law enforcement during that period as
many were focussing on the general election.

For example, the report said that customs officials had
managed to confiscate some 1,814 metric tons of smuggled rice and
5,743 tons of sugar during the first quarter of the year, up from
374 metric tons and 5,675 tons respectively in the same period of
last year.