House supports calls for pre-shipment inspection system on imports

Adianto P.Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Responding to reports of rampant smuggling and under-voicing of imports, the House of Representatives has asked the government to award imports inspection to state-owned surveyor firm PT Superintending Company of Indonesia (Sucofindo) and PT Surveyor Indonesia, a legislator said on Monday.

"We are very disappointed with the performance of the customs office," Irmadi Lubis, a legislator of House Commission V overseeing industry and trade affairs told The Jakarta Post.

Irmadi said that the commission had also proposed the reestablishment of the pre-shipment inspection system.

"We have also proposed to the government to apply a risk management system in import transactions," he said, adding that the concept is basically the same as pre-shipment inspection.

Under the proposed system, Sucofindo and Surveyor Indonesia will inspect imported goods at the port of origin based on a classification system.

"The concept is almost the same as the pre-shipment inspection system, but there will be certain classifications and not all importers will be inspected," he said.

His comments followed similar demands from the Indonesian Importers Association (Ginsi) made during a meeting last week with President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Ginsi said that the state had suffered massive losses from the under-invoicing of import prices made possible by collusion between importers and corrupt customs officials.

According to a recent study conducted by the University of Indonesia, most importers (82 percent) want the government to reinstate the pre-shipment inspection system.

In 1985, the government applied a pre-shipment inspection system on imports and awarded the contract to Societe General de Surveillance (SGS) amid massive corruption at the country's customs office.

But the government ended the contract in 1995 following the implementation of the 1995 Customs Law, and import inspection authority was returned to the customs office.

There have been growing calls for the government to use the expertise of SGS for pre-shipment inspection work.

But Irmadi said that legislators did not want to see SGS run the inspection job alone.

He said that the authority should be given to Sucofindo and Surveyor Indonesia.