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.