Luxury car-smuggling attempt foiled in Cirebon

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon

The Cirebon, West Java, tax and excise office confiscated 19 containers filled with luxurious cars and electronic goods, which were brought in from Singapore without the necessary documentation.

Director general for tax and excise affairs Permana Agung, who made an unannounced inspection of Cirebon port on Monday, said the contents of the containers had been confiscated, pending further investigation into the alleged smuggling incident.

"The importation of luxury cars and electronic goods without any official documentation as required by law is really smuggling. We shall investigate the case thoroughly," he said.

Two of the 19 containers had inside them a Jaguar sports car, a Land Cruiser, a Mercedes Benz S-320 and a S-280, worth in total Rp 3.5 billion, while the 17 others contained thousands of foreign-brand TVs and other electronic goods, worth Rp 17 billion.

He said the luxury cars and electronic goods had been brought in by the Panama-registered ship MV Sentosa Jaya on Jan. 6, 2002 and, so far, no one had claimed them.

"The containers were ordered by local firm PT Tiang Grage but we have to inquire who has tried to profit illegally from the container order," he said.

The smuggling was detected when the seaport authorities received three different manifests of the container order. The containers were opened by force after the disappearance of the people who had handed over the manifests.

"It raised the suspicion of seaport authorities when those claiming the containers issued three different manifests and, shortly afterwards, they disappeared," he said.

Asked about the possible involvement of tax and excise officers in the smuggling, Permana said he would look into that and anyone found guilty would be fired.

"We will look into it and coordinate with our investigators to carry out a thorough investigation of the incident," he said.

He acknowledged that his office had difficulty in preventing such smuggling because it had to monitor 130 seaports, which could be used as an entry point for illegal goods into the country.

Permana said that during his tenure, his office had foiled numerous smuggling attempts, valued at Rp 10 trillion, and had fired 200 officers found to be involved.

"We will fire any tax and excise officers or staff who are involved in the smuggling of luxury cars and electronic goods," he said.