Fiber optic companies urge government to lower tariffs
Fiber optic companies urge government to lower tariffs
JAKARTA (JP): The country's fiber optic manufacturers have
been complaining about the high import duty on raw materials,
urging the government to set lower tariffs to accelerate the
industry's progress.
President of fiber optic company PT Siemens Kabel Optik, Peter
Djatmiko, said here yesterday there were currently four fiber
optic manufacturers operating in Indonesia but they had to pay
higher duties on their raw materials than those imposed on
imported fiber optics.
"Currently fiber optic makers have to pay between 30 percent
and 40 percent import duty on the raw material. The import duty
for fiber optic is just 5 percent," he said.
Djatmiko also called on the government to monitor the volume
of imported fiber optics in Indonesia as the production capacity
of the country's fiber optic producers was sufficient to fulfill
the domestic demand.
The four fiber optic makers in Indonesia currently have a
total capacity of 584,000 single-corn kilometers (sckm), much
more than the domestic demand which totals 250,000 sckm, he
claimed.
Four more fiber optic producers would start operation next
year, he added.
"Many telecommunications companies, which are partly owned by
overseas companies, prefer buying fiber optics from their own
home countries. Some of them have also created their own
prerequisites and specifications to make domestic fiber optic
producers unable to compete with the foreign suppliers," he said.
The government and state-owned PT Telkom have actually set
official standards, he added.
According to Djatmiko, such problems should not have arisen
because the Directorate General of Post and Telecommunications,
has issued type-approval for any telecommunications systems and
equipment to be installed in Indonesia.
Based on data from the Association of Indonesian Cable
Producers, last year Indonesia imported fibers, mostly fiber
optics, worth US$271 million, up by 35 percent from 1995.
"These imports should have cut into the country's foreign
exchange reserves," Djatmiko said.
Many users of imported fiber optics claimed that the local
products cost more and were of inferior quality.
"That's not true. We are competitive in prices," Djatmiko
said.
He said that PT Siemens Kabel Optik (SKO), for example, had
won an ISO 9002 certificate from KEMA of the Netherlands. SKO is
49 percent owned by PT Trafindo Perkasa of the Ometraco Group and
51 percent by Siemens AG of Germany.
He reiterated that the local fiber optic makers only needed
the opportunity. "It'll be much more efficient if the fiber optic
users in Indonesia use local products." (icn)