Group wants easing of limit on lubricant imports

Group wants easing of limit on lubricant imports

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Importers Association urged the
government yesterday to ease the import restriction on
lubricants, saying such a barrier only encouraged monopolistic
and graft practices.

The association's chairman, Amirudin Saud, said the
restriction should be lifted to help factories reduce their
operational costs.

The state oil and gas company Pertamina is the only company
allowed to import and sell oil and oil-related products.

Industrial companies are allowed to import them for their own
use but they must obtain permits from Pertamina, Amirudin said.

Pertamina officials who deal with the importers, however,
often charge the companies large sums of money before issuing the
permits, he said, adding that the permit issuance also took
weeks.

The lubricant and petrochemical products currently under the
control of Pertamina include solid and liquid lubricants, crude
lubricant oil, ethylene, propylene, butylene and butadiene.

Lubricants are used in many factories, such as textile plants,
while petrochemical products are used as raw materials for
certain products such as cosmetics, he said.

Amirudin said companies could spend about 5 percent of the
total import cost on illegal fees just to get their permits
issued.

One member of the Indonesian Exporters Association, Anton
Supit, said yesterday that managed trading of other commodities
created the "invisible monopoly".

Anton said that under the current managed trading, certain
export-oriented companies are exempted from tax and customs fees
when they import raw materials.

But some of these companies often only sell the imported raw
materials at higher prices to local buyers, instead of using them
to produce goods, he said. (das)