Cotton importers complain about new customs rules
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)