Customs service urges review of new decree

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.