Containers pile up 'caused by importers'

Containers pile up 'caused by importers'

JAKARTA (JP): Director General of Customs and Excise Soehardjo
Soebardi has again blamed importers for the pile up of goods in
Tanjung Priok.

He said the pile up was caused by importers' mistakes and not
by the customs office's actions.

The customs inspection office in Tanjung Priok port always
speeds up the checking process of goods coming through the port,
he said. "That means they have to be processed through the green
lane," he said here yesterday.

Products processed through the green lane were given special
treatment, while those processed through the red lane have to
undergo physical checking. Industrial raw materials go through
the green lane.

"But not all goods can freely enter Indonesia," he said. He
added that certain goods, particularly those controlled by the
National Bureau of Logistics (Bulog) and the ministry of
agriculture, were still subject to the government regulation on
import quotas and tariffs.

Many importers, he said, did not comply with the regulation.

"We have to check the goods carefully in order not to endanger
our country or cause it a financial loss," he said, adding that
goods that require physical checking would have to be processed
through the red lane, which took longer.

He said not all importers were good importers. Those who have
prior offences have their goods directed through the red lane.
Those who are suspected to be undervaluing their goods are also
directed to the red lane.

As an example, he said, if the customs officer is not sure if
plastic pellets or prills should be included in the 40 percent
import duty category or the 5 percent import duty category it
will go to the red lane.

"If the importer includes it in the 40 percent category then
there will be no problem. But the country will suffer a financial
loss if it is included into the 5 percent category," he said.

Previously, the chairman of the Association of Indonesian
Importers (Ginsi) Amiruddin Saud said that the Tanjung Priok
Customs Office should expedite the checking process of importers'
customs declarations to avoid congestion in the biggest
Indonesian port.

He said that every day about 500 customs declarations entered
Tanjung Priok customs office. But the office can only process 325
and the rest has to be processed the next day.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Tanjung Priok port said yesterday
freight container traffic through the port during the first four
months totaled 557,082 twenty-feet equivalent units (TEU)
weighing 4.9 million tons.

Sudjarwo said containerized exports and imports flowing
through the port's container terminal in the same period totaled
479,802 TEUs or 4.2 million tons and those through the
conventional terminal 77,280 TEUs or 710,097 tons.

Total cargo throughput, including break and bulk cargo, at
the port in the four month period amounted to 12.94 million tons.

Tanjung Priok's total throughput last year amounted to 40.23
million tons, Sudjarwo added. (bnt/vin)