Customs and Excise to go online

JAKARTA (JP): In cooperation with the Directorate General of Customs and Excise, PT Electronic Data Interchange Indonesia plans to operate a paperless service at Soekarno-Hatta Airport and Tanjung Priok seaport to improve the cargo documentation system.

Company president Widya Purnama told The Jakarta Post Tuesday that the electronic data interchange service will begin next January.

"We will commence a three-month trial operation in January at Soekarno-Hatta Airport. Services will hopefully begin in April 1997 at the airport and at the Tanjung Priok seaport," he said.

The electronic data interchange service will facilitate cargo documentation, he said.

"Businessmen, especially importers, will save both time and money. The electronic data interchange service will reduce personal contact and businessmen will be required to undertake self-assessment," he said.

He said through the service, businessmen will save 50 percent in expenditures.

Electronic Data Interchange Indonesia, set up in June 1995, is a company 49 percent owned by PT Sisindosat Lintasbuana, an information technology company affiliated with the state-owned PT Indosat, and 51 percent by PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II, the state- owned company assigned to manage a number of seaports, including Tanjung Priok.

According to Purnama, Electronic Data Interchange Indonesia will expand its service to customs and excise offices at seaports in Surabaya (East Java), Semarang (Central Java) and Medan (North Sumatra) in late 1977.

"We are investing about Rp 20 billion for the software," he said.

He said that in operating the service, his company will run UN EDIFACT, a system standardized by the United Nations.

He said that some 20 large-scale freight forwarders and shipping companies already use an electronic data interchange service run by Electronic Data Interchange Indonesia at Tanjung Priok seaport's cargo terminals. (icn)