Customs chief complain of poor response to EDI
Customs chief complain of poor response to EDI
JAKARTA (JP): Director General of Customs and Excise Tax
Soehardjo Soebardi complained yesterday about the lack of
response to the electronic data interchange (EDI) system for the
processing of customs documents.
Soehardjo said his office had tried to convince businesspeople
and government offices of the benefits of EDI in improving
overall economic efficiency.
"But their response remains very low," he said.
Soehardjo, Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad, Minister of
Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto, Minister of Industry and
Trade Tunky Ariwibowo and Bank Indonesia Governor Soedradjad
Djiwandono yesterday briefed President Soeharto on the merits of
EDI.
"The President instructed that EDI be promoted throughout the
country," Soehardjo said.
EDI was launched in April to coincide with the enforcement of
the new customs law which applies selective on-arrival inspection
and post-entry audit systems for imports. It replaced the
preshipment inspection service which had been used since mid-
1985.
But importers have been complaining about the large portion
of imports subjected to physical inspection, resulting in delays
of up to two weeks in the clearance of goods from the port.
"Moreover, we think the customs service has yet to improve its
human resources to facilitate smooth EDI operations," said
chairman of the Indonesian Importers Association, Amiruddin, in a
hearing with the House of Representatives here earlier this
month.
Importers have argued that EDI benefits would be nullified if
the customs service, which is required by law to physically
inspect goods on a selective basis, still held up many import
consignments for such a time-consuming inspection.
They also complained that investment in EDI hardware and
software would not reduce costs as long as many related
government offices were not logged on to the system.
EDI has also been designed to minimize physical contact
between businesspeople and customs officials, thereby reducing
opportunities for collusion or malfeasance.
But importers claimed physical contact remained intensive due
to the reckless physical inspection of goods by customs
officials.
Soehardjo lambasted foreign exchange banks for their lack of
support for EDI, a paperless system designed to speed up the
processing of customs documents by linking importers, banks,
customs, port office, freight forwarders and other related
agencies through computers.
"Only 74 of the 121 foreign exchange banks have come online
with the EDI system," Soehardjo said.
But he was optimistic that EDI would be fully implemented for
imports at ports throughout Java later this year and at ports
outside Java next year.
"We have been informed by the minister of finance that export
documents would also be processed through EDI starting next
April," he said.
Soehardjo said one reason behind the poor support for EDI was
that businesspeople are afraid their "banking secrecies" would be
exposed to customs officials.
He suspected some companies hesitated to use EDI because they
had things to hide.
But Soehardjo said such fear was groundless because customs
officials only required information related to import
consignments, prices, customs tariffs and payments to be inputted
through EDI.
He reaffirmed the importance of EDI, especially in facing the
ASEAN Free Trade Area in 2003 and the economy's increasing
globalization.
"I am not exaggerating to say that the life or death of our
trade in this era of globalization depends on EDI," Soehardjo
said.
Asked why many importers still complained about the poor
customs service, Soehardjo said importers who raised such
complaints usually handled their import clearance through customs
brokers. (vin)