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)