Counterfeiting concerns President

Counterfeiting concerns President

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Karawang/West Java

The rising number of counterfeit banknotes and passports
circulating in the country has prompted President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono to urge the authorities to get more serious in fighting
document fraud.

Speaking during his visit to the state printing company Perum
Peruri's plant here on Wednesday, the President called on the
firm -- tasked with printing banknotes, passports and securities
papers -- to improve the quality of its products to prevent them
from easily being counterfeited.

"I repeat my call to law enforcers to prevent the
counterfeiting of our banknotes and passports," he said, adding
that such crimes had existed for a long time and were difficult
to stop.

Susilo did not directly refer to last month's fake banknotes
scandal, which involved a number of officers from the powerful
State Intelligence Agency (BIN).

The National Police recently arrested seven officers from BIN
for counterfeiting -- one a retired high-ranking police officer.

Most embarrassingly for the government, the officer is the
chief of staff at BIN's special division for the eradication of
currency counterfeiting.

The police have so far confiscated 2,000 units of Rp 100,000
(US$11) banknotes and other equipment such as a printing machine
from the suspects.

A consistent rise in the number of counterfeited banknotes, if
unchecked, would end up causing higher inflation rates and would
lower the value of the rupiah against international currencies.

Data from Bank Indonesia shows that from January to September
2004 BI collected 36,550 fake notes comprising of 15,940 units of
Rp 50,000 notes, 12,309 Rp 100,000 notes, 4,258 Rp 20,000 notes,
3,863 Rp 10,000 notes and 190 Rp 5,000 bills, worth a total of
around Rp 2.15 billion.

The data showed an increase from the previous year where BI
only detected a total of 24,656 counterfeit notes. There is also
an increasing pattern of Rp 100,000 banknotes being counterfeited
as compared to other denominations.

During the visit, Susilo also underscored the urgency for
Peruri to improve security features on the country's passports,
since many international crime organizations and terrorists had
used fake Indonesian passports to travel in and out of Indonesia.

"We should take the problem of fake passports seriously as
terrorists have used them, thus undermining our security and
defense," he said.

Susilo also urged Peruri and the Ministry of Finance's
Directorate General of Customs and Excise to boost efforts to
prevent excise stamps from being counterfeited.

Director General of Customs and Excise Eddy Abdurrahman said
state losses resulting from the crime amounted to Rp 150 billion
annually, with most of the illegal activity occurring in Central
and East Java.

"It is not easy to tackle the crime because the police,
prosecutors and judges often give the suspects lenient
punishments, thus encouraging them to commit more crimes," he
said.