Customs office to recover unpaid import tariffs

Customs office to recover unpaid import tariffs

JAKARTA (JP): The Directorate General of Customs and Excise is
trying to recover funds from importers who are reluctant to pay
their due arrears on "unpaid" import duties.

Director of Verification Roy Ronald Lino said in a one-day
workshop on customs and excise here over the weekend that many
importers still have "unpaid duties" owed to the government due
to the mistakes made by the Geneva-based Societe Generale de
Surveillance (SGS) in its inspections.

"After our verification, we found that SGS had made mistakes
in some pre-shipment inspections on products to be exported to
Indonesia, especially in calculating tariffs," Roy said.

In 1985, in its effort to make the inflow of goods run
smoothly and to prevent corruption and red tape, the government
hired SGS to inspect Indonesia's imports at points of loading.
Previously, goods inspection were carried out by the Directorate
General of Customs and Excise at the country's ports of entry.

According to the Advisory Group in Economy, Industry and Trade
(Econit), SGS carries out the inspection of 68 percent of the
country's imports, while the rest are administered by the state-
owned PT Surveyor Indonesia.

However, the government has given authority to the directorate
general to review the work of the two surveyor companies and to
conduct selective on-arrival inspections if necessary.

Lower

Roy noted that many tariffs determined by SGS were lower than
the actual tariffs set by the government and others were actually
higher.

"If tariffs determined by SGS were higher than they should
have been then the government is committed to returning the
exceeding amount," Roy noted.

However, he added, when SGS-determined tariffs were less than
they should be the importers showed reluctance in paying the
difference to the government. "They claim that it's not their
fault as they got the tariff levels from SGS."

When asked, Roy declined to give the exact amount of the
government's "unpaid" revenues resulting from the miscalculation
of import tariffs, saying that the amount changes from time to
time.

He reiterated that his office is trying to recover the losses
as it has the authority to do so, based on Article 20 of the
existing Customs Ordinance. However, his office has no authority
in forcing the defiant importers to pay the outstanding sums.

"If we fail to recover the due payments, we just transfer the
case to the General Agency for the State Credits and Auctions,
which has the authority to deal with such importers," Roy said.
(rid)