Freight forwarders accused of hindering imports

Freight forwarders accused of hindering imports

JAKARTA (JP): The Director General of Customs and Excise Tax,
Soehardjo Soebardi, says freight forwarding companies are
impeding the flow of imports via air cargo services.

Soehardjo told The Jakarta Post at his office over the weekend
that freight forwarders often act more like customs service
scalpers rather than customs brokers.

He explained that the forwarders often exploit small-scale
importers, or travelers, who are carrying goods which have to be
declared to customs officials. They charge their customers extra
money for what they describe as "services to deal with customs
officials".

"They intentionally create such a situation that small-scale
importers and travelers feel it is essential to use their
services in relation to customs matters," Soebardjo said.

They create the image that customs officials at airports have
some kind of disease that makes them difficult to deal with, he
said.

"They are like robbers crying 'thief'. Unfortunately, we are
powerless to control them. Even airport managements seem
incapable of curbing them," Soehardjo said.

He made the remarks in response to allegations by the
Association of Indonesian Importers that importers sometimes have
to bribe customs officials to have their goods inspected and
cleared quickly.

Soehardjo contended that it is very often the freight
forwarders who intentionally slow down customs clearance so that
they can charge additional money for rapid clearance of goods
through the customs areas.

"They intentionally make customs clearance processes more
complicated and longer. Then, they blame us for creating the
bottleneck in the processes. And the people just believe it
because they are prejudiced against us," Soehardjo said.

He explained that freight forwarders are so "wild" in their
operations because the government is "too good" to them. The
government does not require them to provide bank guarantees for
their operations.

"So when a freight forwarder is convicted of violating a
regulation, for instance, he just disappears for a while and then
suddenly shows up with a new freight forwarding company. This has
happened," Soehardjo said.

He appealed to all parties who need customs services to go
directly to customs offices. He promised that customs officials,
especially in "dangerous" areas like Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta
international airport and Tanjung Priok port, will do their best
to expedite customs clearance.

"We are actually very open to the needs of the people. If they
want to communicate directly with us, they can do so. We would
appreciate that. My door is always open to everybody," Soehardjo
said.

Soehardjo, who was accompanied by Director of Tariffs and
Prices Daeng M. Nazier and Head of the Data and Information
Center Eddy Abdurrachman, during the interview, partly blamed the
lack of communication between the customs offices and users of
customs services for the complaints addressed to his staff.

Citing examples, he pointed out that complaints from publicly-
listed pharmaceuticals firm Kalbe Farma about customs inspection
of its drug materials and from the Association of Spinning
Companies about the taking of cotton samples from container boxes
had resulted from a communication gap.

The spinners association recently protested against a ruling
issued by the head of the Tanjung Priok customs office, which
required customs officials to take two packages of cotton from
every cotton shipment.

The association claimed that the ruling could hamper the flow
of imported cotton, which in turn would impede production
processes in the cotton-spinning industry.

Daeng explained that the ruling was designed to check the
tariff classification of the cotton imports because "raw cotton
and combed cotton have different tariff classifications.

"Anyway, the ruling has been revoked," Daeng said.

Kalbe Farma complained late last month that customs officials
at the Soekarno-Hatta airport often removed labels from the
pharmaceutical packages, thereby interfering with the
manufacturing of the drugs.

"If they had informed us earlier, we would have not opened the
packages. This kind of problem resulted only from the lack of
communication between the customs office and importers," Daeng
said. (rid)