KPK Urged to Proceed with Caution: Excise Case Must Not Kill the People's Cigarette Industry
The steps taken by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to investigate allegations of corruption in excise management within the Directorate General of Customs and Excise should be respected as part of efforts to clean up industry governance from bribery, gratification, and distortions that harm the state.
In this case, the KPK has stated that it is delving into excise management, summoning cigarette entrepreneurs from Central Java and East Java, and examining a cigarette entrepreneur from Pasuruan, East Java, as a witness. The KPK also stated that the examination aims to deepen the understanding of the excise management process and mechanisms in the field.
Cigarette entrepreneur and owner of Bandar Rokok Nusantara Global Group (BARONG Group), HRM Khalilur R Abdullah Sahlawiy, emphasised that law enforcement must be directed towards cleaning up dirty practices, not indiscriminately striking all players in the people’s cigarette industry.
“Crackdowns on alleged corruption at Customs and Excise must be supported. The state must not lose to excise mafias, stamp mafias, or dirty games that damage trade practices. However, the KPK must also be very thorough, careful, and think comprehensively so that the handling of this case does not turn into a blind blow against the legal and growing people’s industry, especially in Madura,” said the entrepreneur, familiarly known as Gus Lilur, in a written statement on Monday (6/4).
He assessed that the people’s cigarette industry in tobacco-producing areas must not be placed in the same position as deviant actors who exploit corruption loopholes. According to him, many small and medium-sized enterprises in the cigarette sector are actually trying to enter the legal path, pay their obligations, and build businesses from the bottom in the midst of an industry structure that is not always friendly to them.
“Do not generalise. Do not let a major case at the excise management level lead to all people’s cigarette business actors being treated as if they are part of the problem. That is unfair. Those who are wrong must be prosecuted, but those growing legally must not be killed,” he stressed.
Gus Lilur reminded that the KPK itself has linked this case to excise management and the proliferation of illegal cigarettes, while investigators are also examining the realities of procedures that cigarette entrepreneurs should follow in excise management. Therefore, he said, the investigators’ approach should be able to clearly distinguish between actors who exploit corruption for illegal gains and people’s business actors who are often victims of a complicated and expensive system.
He highlighted that tobacco-producing areas like Madura cannot be viewed only from the enforcement side but must be seen in a broader socio-economic context. In such regions, the people’s cigarette industry is not just about factories but also about the fate of tobacco farmers, rolling workers, distribution workers, small traders, and a long local economic ecosystem.
“If the handling is not careful, those hit will not just be business owners. Those hit will be tobacco farmers, labourers, small families, and regions that have long depended their economic pulse on tobacco. The KPK must view this case not only as a legal matter but also as a people’s economic issue,” he said.
According to Gus Lilur, the state must be able to turn this prosecution momentum into a path to reform the excise system and cigarette trade more fairly. Cleaning up corrupt practices in the regulatory body is important, but that reform must be accompanied by protection for the legal industry growing from the bottom.
“Do not let the strong escape while the small collapse. Do not let those who have long played in power gaps remain safe, while the people’s industry that is just learning to be legal collapses due to fear, stigma, and pressure. This must be prevented,” he said.
Gus Lilur urged the KPK, the Ministry of Finance, and all stakeholders to view the people’s cigarette industry more proportionately. He hopes that law enforcement in this case will achieve two things at once: cleaning up corrupt practices and strengthening the legal path for the people’s industry.
“If the state wants to seriously curb illegal cigarettes, then the legal path for the people’s industry must be strengthened, not narrowed. If the state wants to save revenue, then business actors who want to grow compliantly must be given certainty, not made to die before developing. Madura and other tobacco-producing areas need such justice,” he concluded.