Govt intensifies efforts to protect electronics buyers

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Starting July, the government would penalize stores that sell electronic products which do not carry guarantee cards and instruction manuals in the Indonesian language, a senior governmental official said Monday.

Director for the supervision of trade goods and services at the Ministry of Industry and Trade Budi Darmadi said the move was part of the government's effort to protect consumers in line with Consumer Protection Law No. 8/1999.

As part of the implementation of the law, the ministry issued a decree last July obligating 17 electronic items, including radio cassette players, VCD/DVD players, televisions, printers, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and cell phones, to carry guarantee cards and manuals in Indonesian.

"The punishment ranges from the revocation of the stores' licenses to the imprisonment of the owners," Budi said during a a visit to the ITC Roxi Mas shopping center in Central Jakarta.

Budi visited the shopping center as part of the ministry's public campaigns to disseminate information about the regulation.

He said he believed that the electronic goods which were sold without guarantee cards and Indonesian-language manuals had been illegally imported into the country.

"For the time being, we can tolerate traders who sell electronics without guarantee cards and instruction manuals in Indonesian.

"However, after July, we will take tough measures against those who sell goods without these items," he warned traders who attended the meeting at ITC Roxi Mas.

Budi said the regulation also aimed at curbing the rampant smuggling of electronic goods into the country.

The Indonesian Electronics Association (Gabel) has said that 50 percent of imported electronics sold on the local market had been imported illegally.

The association has often voiced concerns over the illegally imported products, saying they badly hurt the sales of locally- made products.

Many consumers prefer buying illegally imported electronics because they are much cheaper than legally imported ones, while the availability of guarantee cards or any manuals did not really matter to them.

According to chairman of the cell phone vendors association (APTEG) Muhardi Noor, a legally imported Nokia communicator was offered at Rp 6.3 million, while the illegal one was priced about Rp 800,000 cheaper.

"Cell phones of more market-friendly series, like the 3-series of Nokia, have about a Rp 300,000 difference between the legal and illegal ones," he said.

"In such a case, we vendors do not manipulate anything. We always tell our buyers whether the items are illegal or not. The transactions are all legal as long as the consumers agree to buy such products, right?" said Muhardi.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, sales of electronics in Indonesia are estimated to reach about Rp 20 trillion (US$2.22 billion) in 2003 and Rp 29 trillion in 2005.

Chairwoman of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) Indah Suksmaningsih welcomed the government's move, saying the use of the Indonesian language in guarantee cards and manuals was important for consumers to understand their rights.

"They have the right to understand what they will get from a product, like a limited guarantee or any after-sales service, and the use of Indonesian will make it easier," Indah told The Jakarta Post.

She also explained that Indonesian consumers should start to realize that a cheap price was not everything.

"Buying legal products means supporting the domestic industry which employs thousands of people. If people do not buy legal products, the industry will be affected and thousands of people will become unemployed," she said.

"Unemployment will later become a social threat. It is possible that the unemployed will resort to stealing and other crimes some day, only because of the sales of illegal items," she said.