Customs told port pile-up could affect trade

JAKARTA (JP): The Overseas Ship Owners' Representatives Association (OSRA) warned that unless the customs office took serious steps Tanjung Priok port's container pile-up could create serious problems.

OSRA chairman Lim Kean Joo said in a letter to the director general of customs and excise that the current pile-up of containers at the port could affect imports and exports.

"There is the added concern of reports of conferences abroad considering placing the issue of delays to import containers on their watch lists," Lim wrote, a copy of his letter was made available here last week.

He said buyers in the United States and Europe were concerned about reliability. The problems in Tanjung Priok might make them reluctant to place orders in Indonesia for fear of delays and cost increases.

"We understand that our members are daily getting inquiries about the situation from buyers overseas. To mitigate the problem we urge that any possible steps be taken to alleviate the situation," Lim said.

He said OSRA members were concerned that the current container pile-up could lead to congestion like in 1995, when the average ship's waiting time was over 24 hours and yard occupancy ratio reached over 70 percent.

Last month, the yard occupancy ratio at Tanjung Priok reached a critical 97 percent before the authorities removed containers every day to adjacent privately owned container terminals.

Economist I Nyoman Moena suggested the customs office combine preshipment inspections of imports and post-release audits to reduce the high stack of containers.

"When we had a preshipment inspection system we never had container pile-ups that high (97 percent). It seems to me that the system is not yet working," Moena was quoted by Antara as saying Sunday.

Moena is a former president of PT Surveyor Indonesia, which undertook preshipment inspections of imports from 1991 to last March when the customs office reinstated a combination of on- arrival inspections, duty and tax self-assessments and post- release audits.

Importers have blamed slow customs service for the recent pile-up, while the customs office has blamed importers' unwillingness to use electronic data interchange.

The Ministry of Transportations has also blamed importers for the pile-up. It said importers deliberately delayed picking up their containers from Tanjung Priok's container yards for as long as six days because they were only charged a one-day fee.

And President Soeharto, after a report from the transportation minister, ordered him to force container owners to remove their containers immediately after they arrived at the port.

But forcing importers to clear their containers right after arrival will be futile if importers cannot process their import documents quickly.

"Rather than blaming each other, while imports increase, why doesn't the customs office ask PT Surveyor Indonesia to be its working partner again," Nyoman Moena said.

Moena said the current pile-up at Tanjung Priok would cause losses to everyone concerned. (rid)