Government cuts container waiting time at ports

Government cuts container waiting time at ports

JAKARTA (JP): The government decided yesterday to cut the time
importers can store their containers free of charge at the city's
Tanjung Priok port from six days to three days, effective Aug. 1.

Speaking after reporting to Vice President Try Sutrisno,
Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said the time
reduction was needed to reduce the port's container pile-up.

Haryanto said he would issue a new ruling on June 16. But the
ruling would leave a transition period, until Aug. 1.

The new ruling would also set base rates for container
stacking at the port's terminals, the minister said.

Consignments stocked at the port for three days will be free
of charge, but from the fourth day until the 10th day, a set
daily fee will be charged.

Containers stacked at the port for more than 10 days will be
charged twice the normal daily fee.

The new ruling will also require PT Pelindo II, which manages
Tanjung Priok port, to bear all transportation costs in case it
is obliged to remove containers to depots or storage areas
outside the port.

Haryanto yesterday again blamed importers for the container
pile-up at the port. Currently, the yard occupancy ratio stood at
63 percent, down from a critical 97 percent in late April, he
said.

He said many 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.

With a shorter free-of-charge storage period at the port,
importers would be forced to remove their goods as soon as
possible, Haryanto said.

But importers have been complaining of slow processing of
customs documents, claiming they had to spent at least four days
with the customs service to clear them.

Customs redtape

Anton J. Supit, chairman of the Indonesian Footwear
Association, said no rational industrial company wanted to have
their urgently-needed raw materials stay a single hour longer at
the port than necessary.

"If we clear our goods only after the sixth day after arrival,
it's because of prolonged bureaucratic paperwork, not because we
want that," Anton said.

At a meeting between importers and Minister Haryanto on
Monday, an importer said paperwork could be completed within four
days only if all parties, including banks, the port authority,
shipping agents and importers, were connected to the customs'
electronic data interchange (EDI).

Currently, most importers and banks are not linked to the EDI
system.

Aggrayni G., a director at shoe manufacturer PT Astra Graphia,
said at a meeting with Minister of Industry and Trade Tunky
Ariwibowo last week, that her company subscribed to the EDI
system but still could not complete all the customs paperwork
within three days.

Other importers complained that the arbitrary removal of
containers to private terminals had complicated the clearance of
goods from customs areas, because importers often had difficulty
finding their containers in the vast yard.

In addition, the transfer of containers to private depots
incurred additional to importers because the private depots
charged higher fees, about Rp 500,000 (US$205) per 40-foot
container per day.

Economist and trade analyst, I Nyoman Moena, was quoted by
Antara as saying that cutting the free-of-charge storage days at
the port would create additional problems for importers.

If it was not followed by quicker processing of paperwork by
the customs office, it would simply impose big additional costs
on importers.

To solve the problem, Moena suggested the customs office
combine the abandoned pre-shipment inspection system with the on-
arrival inspection system to ensure a smoother flow of goods
through the port.

He suggested that strategic industrial imports by state
agencies and state-owned firms could be inspected at ports of
loading, while raw materials and consumer goods imports could be
inspected at points of unloading.

The pre-shipment inspection system had for more than 11 years
proved to be an efficient way of ensuring a smooth flow of goods,
said Moena.

Indonesia used pre-shipment inspection from mid-1985 to March
31, 1997. (rid)