Cotton importers complain about new customs rules
JAKARTA (JP): Importers of cotton and pharmaceutical goods have complained over a new customs ruling which, they said, could undermine their businesses.
In a letter to the Directorate General of Customs and Excise dated Sept. 30, the Association of Spinning Companies questioned the legality of a ruling issued by the head of the directorate general's Region IV office, which overseas Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port.
The ruling, which is designed to monitor the importation of cotton, requires customs officials to take two packages of cotton from every cotton shipment as samples.
The association's chairman, Aminuddin, said in the letter that the new ruling could hamper the flow of imported cotton, which in turn would impede production in the cotton-spinning industry.
"In practice, as experienced by our members, the sample-taking by officials from the Region IV customs office is not carried out in accordance with the ruling. Although only one container is opened for sampling purposes, all of the cotton containers are held up," Aminuddin said in the letter.
He said such practices could disturb tight spinning production schedules.
He asked who would pay for the excess demurrage time in cases where the holding up of containers in the stacking yard overpassed the demurrage-free time.
"If the over-time storage costs are borne by producer importers, it will surely affect our production costs and consequently will make it difficult for us to improve the competitiveness of our textiles," Aminuddin said.
Pharmaceuticals
Meanwhile, publicly-listed pharmaceuticals company PT Kalbe Farma also complained about the on-arrival customs inspection of pharmaceutical materials arriving via air cargo services.
In its letter to the head of customs office at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta international airport, dated Sept. 28, the company said customs officials at the airport often removed the labels of the packages, thereby interfering with the manufacturing of the drugs.
According to the manufacturing practices for medicines stipulated by the ministry of health, packages of the drug raw materials must be opened in a special room to ensure that they are not contaminated, Kalbe Farma said.
"If the materials are opened in an unauthorized place or by an unauthorized person...the materials cannot be used anymore and become part of our losses," the company said in the letter.
Copies of both letters -- the letter from the spinning firm association and that from Kalbe Farma -- were made available yesterday by the Association of Indonesian Importers.
No officials from the customs and excise directorate general were available for comment yesterday.
However, chairman of the importers' association, Amirudin Saud, was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying that Director General of Customs and Excise Soehardjo Soebardi had assured him that the customs office would soon take measures to address the complaints made by the spinners' association.(rid)