Customs and Excise to go online

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)