Customs blames surveyor for textile smuggling
JAKARTA (JP): The Directorate General of Customs and Excise blames under weighing and under invoicing of shipments of imported textiles and textile-related products worth more than US$5,000 for rampant smuggling of those products.
The director for investigation and elimination of smuggling, Thomas Sugiyata, said yesterday his office had seized four 40- foot and two 20-foot containers of imported textiles and apparel which had been under weighed.
"These six containers were equipped with surveyor reports (LPS), thus they had been inspected at points of loading by PT Surveyor Indonesia... However, after we reinspected them, we found that there were discrepancies," Thomas told reporters at Tanjung Priok's container terminal.
Thomas showed the six containers to reporters and executives of the Indonesian Textile Association.
But he refused to name the importers of the six containers, which were imported from South Korea and Taiwan last October.
Thomas said that a 40-foot container and a 20-foot container of imported textiles, transported by the Wan Hai ship from Taiwan, had been reported to weigh 9.5 tons, but customs revealed they really weighed 33.9 tons.
"Thus, there were weight discrepancies of 24.3 tons," Thomas said, adding that some of the apparel were secondhand.
Thomas did not talk about smuggled textiles in shipments labeled as being $5000 or less, which are not required to be inspected at points of loading.
Under the current preshipment inspection system, sea cargo imports worth more than $5,000 must be inspected at points of loading by the designated surveyor, state-owned PT Surveyor Indonesia.
Customs is only allowed to inspect sea cargo imports worth up to $5,000 and air cargo imports.
The textile association raised the issue of smuggled textiles earlier this month in a report to President Soeharto.
One of the association's executives, Lily Asdjudirja, has hinted that smuggled textiles entered Indonesia in shipments valued less than $5,000.
His statement was supported by the chairman of the Indonesian Importers Association, Amirudin Said, who said that most textile imports came in shipments worth less than $5,000 to avoid preshipment inspections.
Amirudin said yesterday that Thomas' statement was out of proportion, and that he should disclose textile imports worth less than $5,000 a shipment.
"If the customs office is really serious about eliminating smuggling of textiles and other products, it should first of all investigate all past imports worth less than $5,000.
"If it dares to do so, this will convince me that the customs office is really serious in its efforts," Amirudin said.
The textile association's secretary-general, Benny Soetrisno, said he would not discuss the value of shipments prone to smuggling. The most important thing was that smuggling of textiles must stop to save domestic producers.
"The level of textile smuggling has been alarming. You can check for yourselves the smuggled products at Pasar Tanah Abang or Mangga Dua," Benny said, referring to two of Jakarta's wholesale centers for textiles.
Thomas said the director general of customs and excise had instructed customs branches to inspect all imported textile shipments worth $5,000 or less.
"Our concern is that imported textiles should not be cheaper (than domestically produced textiles). Thus, the price must also be checked using our list of prices as reference," Thomas said.
The customs office also plans to target imported textile shipments with LPS documents, to anticipate possible under weighing and under invoicing.
The customs office is exchanging information with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to tackle smuggling. Customs is also cooperating with the textile association. (rid)