Government asked to anull decision on export inspection

Government asked to anull decision on export inspection

JAKARTA (JP): Disappointed, the Association of Indonesian
Exporters (GPEI) has taken its case to newly-elected President
Megawati Soekarnoputri, urging her to annul the recent government
decision to entrust the customs office to manage export
inspection services.

GPEI's chairman Amirudin Saud said on Thursday that he had
sent a letter to the President, urging her to again entrust the
state surveyor company PT Superintending Company of Indonesia
(Sucofindo) with the task of inspecting exports as the company
had been efficient in facilitating exports.

"Sucofindo has managed the export inspection service well
under its professional management. We found no problem with their
service," Amirudin told The Jakarta Post.

Sucofindo, which had been providing export inspection services
since 1986, lost the business following the government's decision
on Monday not to renew Sucofindo's two-year contract that expired
on July 31.

Amirudin, also chairman of the Indonesian Importers
Association, said the decision would backfire and result in
inefficiencies as the customs office was still entrapped in
bureaucratic problems.

"The office won't be capable of handling the export inspection
services as it has failed to free itself from red tape," Amirudin
told The Jakarta Post.

Long-known as a corrupt institution, the customs office lost
its inspection rights over both imports and exports in mid-1980s
when then president Soeharto entrusted a private company and
state-owned company with the inspection procedure of both exports
and imports.

Geneva-based Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) was
entrusted to conduct preshipment inspections of imports, while
Sucofindo for exports.

The customs office, nevertheless, regained its inspection
rights over imports in April 1997, when the government
implemented the 1995 customs law, which introduced a post-audit
system of on-arrival inspections.

This month, the customs office regained its inspection rights
over exports.

Amirudin noted that the decision to restore the customs
office' inspection rights over imports had cost importers dearly,
and therefore, the decision to restore the customs office'
inspection rights of exports would also be costly for exporters.

"The customs and excise office has failed to provide clean
inspection services to importers as inefficient procedures are
still rampant. Why did the government give another task to the
troubled institution?," Amirudin questioned.

Separately, Sucofindo president Didie Tedjosumirat said the
company lost Rp 270 billion in earnings from export inspection
services, or about 48 percent of its total earnings.

Nevertheless, the company has been expanding into new
businesses to offset the 48 percent revenue loss.

The new businesses include the surveillance of illegal logging
activities and foreign fishing vessels and the management of
companies' inventories, he said.

Sucofindo also objected to the customs and excise office's
claim, as reported by the Post on Thursday, that under the
company, exporters had to wait up to 20 days from the submission
of documents to receiving verification.

"Sucofindo issues its certificate within 24 hours, and in some
branches it's less than five hours after the inspection of
goods," it said in a statement.(03/bkm)