Customs to cut bureaucracy in clearance procedure

Customs to cut bureaucracy in clearance procedure

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Directorate General of Customs and Excise has issued a new
policy in a bid to streamline bureaucracy to help smooth the flow
of goods into the country.

The policy, which will become effective on April 1, 2003,
covers the post-release control of goods at the customs office.

Under the post-release process, the customs office will check
whether the importers have already paid the necessary import
duties.

Nirwala Dwi Heriyanto, head of the reform program for import
registration and post-release control at the directorate, said on
Thursday that the current procedure was deemed unfavorable to
businesses because importers had to deal with three divisions.

He said each division often gave different opinions on whether
the importers had paid the necessary import duties, opening room
for customs officials to either extort money from importers or
collude so that the latter could pay lower duties.

"The current procedure creates uncertainty for importers,"
Nirwala said.

He said the new policy would also help eliminate such
corruption.

Under the policy, the post-release control procedure would be
integrated into one division, thus making the import clearance
process more efficient.

The new post-release control would only be applied to
importers importing "high-risk goods" such as sugar, rice and
other commodities or goods whose inflow into the country hurts
local producers.

The customs office has often been criticized for extorting
money from importers and had long-been considered as one of the
bottlenecks for an efficient production system. This problem has
created a high-cost economy, which is partly responsible for the
current economic crisis at home.

Amid the growing criticism and the government's drive to
implement good corporate governance (part of a commitment to
international donors), the customs office has recently started to
revamp the institution.

The current post-release procedure requires all importers,
including those given a non-inspection privilege status, to
undergo triple checking for every single import notice document.

Under this system, importers will have to obtain approval
letters from the first verification unit. After this, they will
have to go to a second office for re-verification. And finally,
the third check will be conducted by an audit team.

Each unit has the authority to declare whether the importers
have fulfilled the necessary requirements. But often bad customs
officials accuse importers of tax violations and demand money.