Customs procedures hamper shipbuilding
Customs procedures hamper shipbuilding
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned docking and shipbuilding companies
said recently that customs procedures for importing engines and
components and the high interest rates on domestic loans hinder
their competitiveness.
"Arduous customs procedures increase the costs of imports and
often cause delays in the delivery of ships," state-owned PT Dok
Perkapalan Koja Bahari's president, A. Wahid, told a hearing with
House of Representatives' Commission VI for industry yesterday.
The directors of PT Dok Dan Perkapalan Surabaya which is based
in East Java and the Ujungpandang-based PT Industri Kapal
Indonesia also attended the hearing.
PT Dok & Perkapalan Surabaya's president Sudarman Sellang and
La Adrian Ifie, president of PT Industri Kapal Indonesia,
supported Wahid's complaints, pointing out that the shipbuilding
industry still relies mostly on imported materials, engines and
components.
Adrian also pointed out that domestic loan interest rates,
which currently reach as high as 20 percent, are much higher than
that of overseas loans which average only 7 percent.
Sudarman said that domestic shipbuilders are financially frail
and cannot afford to accept orders for big ships because buyers
usually make an advance payment of only 25 percent or less of the
total cost.
However, Koja Bahari reported its great success last year in
winning orders to build four Reefer ships from Sea Trade
Groningen BV of Holland with a total price of US$225.4 million.
Wahid also complained that the January package of deregulation
measures did not provide equal treatment to all domestic
shipbuilding companies.
He urged the government to exempt all domestic shipbuilders
from the value added tax and provide them with soft loans from
Bank Indonesia (the central bank).
Earlier reports said that another state-owned shipbuilding
company, PT PAL Surabaya, which is chaired by Minister of
Research and Technology B.J. Habibie in his capacity as the
chairman of the Agency of Strategic Industries, has been exempted
from import duty on imports of components and materials. (kod)