Customs service urges review of new decree

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Directorate General of Customs and Excise has asked the Ministry of Finance to review the newly-issued Ministerial Decree No. 454/2002 on importer registration as, he claimed, both the customs' service and importers were unprepared for the implementation of the new policy.

Spokesman for the customs service, Susihandoyo, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that the customs service had asked for the registration deadline set in the decree to be put back from Jan. 1, 2003, to April 1, 2003, to give more time for both customs and importers to effect registration.

"A review of the decree, specifically with regard to the registration deadline, is being proposed due to a fundamental change in our registration system, from a face-to-face registration system to an electronic one. We need some time to prepare for the change," he said.

The agency initially planned to summon all importers to register themselves at customs offices. But, the plan was dropped over worries that such face-to-face registration would give an opportunity to crooked importers to collude with customs officials.

Importers were then told to register via the Internet at the customs service website.

Susihandoyo said that after the decree were issued, the customs service received hundreds of complaints from importers about the short time given for them to register.

The service itself found it difficult to complete registration within such a short period of time, he said.

"We only have one-and-a-half months to the deadline. Even if we were able to quickly complete registration, when will we have the time to conduct field checks on registered importers?" he asked.

The registration of importers is part of the customs service's efforts to curb smuggling.

The service has said that some of the data on importers provided by the Ministry of Industry and Trade was inaccurate, and that it was unable to monitor the operations of all importers. Through importer registration, customs wants to collect more accurate information about importers and thus finally identify those prone to smuggling or committing fraud during the clearance process.

Susihandoyo said that it had been decided to request a review of the decree on Monday during a special meeting attended by the Director General of Customs and Excise, Eddy Abdurahman.

The meeting decided that importers should be given three months to register, running from December 2002 through February of next year.

After registration had been completed, the customs service would send out officers to verify all the information supplied by importers during registration. The verification process was expected to be completed in March, so that by April 1 all importers would have registered themselves and have had their particulars verified.