Govt foils US$3b smuggling attempt

Govt foils US$3b smuggling attempt

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Directorate General of Customs and Excise foiled on Monday an
attempt to smuggle 16 containers of various goods through Tanjung
Priok Port, which could have caused state losses of up to US$3
billion.

Director General of Customs and Excise Eddy Abdurrachman said
the confiscation of the containers was the result of a week-long
operation, in which customs officials found several importers
falsely declaring the goods they were going to import and export
in the containers.

"The officers suspected the export documents and X-rayed the
containers," he said.

Eddy explained that the 16 confiscated containers included 10
containers of imported cloves from Singapore worth US$2 billion
that had been declared as "sunflower seeds", and two containers
of imported garments from China worth US$1 billion that had been
declared as "consolidated goods".

The customs office also confiscated four containers containing
wrongly declared scrap metal, textiles and raw tin sand that were
to be exported.

One customs official has been detained by the police for
questioning.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recently instructed the
Directorate General of Customs and Excise to crack down on
smuggling, which is rampant and has seriously hampered the
development of local industries.

The Directorate General of Customs and Excise has set a 2004
revenue target of Rp 11.8 trillion (US$1.29 billion) from customs
and Rp 28.4 trillion from excise, which Eddy is confident his
office will be able to reach.

Eddy gave an example of the current Rp 203 billion in excise
revenue from the cigarette industry, which has passed the year's
target of Rp 196 billion, due to an increase in production and
despite the canceled hike in cigarette excise this year.