Mar'ie orders thorough probe of export scam
Mar'ie orders thorough probe of export scam
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad said
yesterday that he has assigned three top officials at his
ministry to help the Attorney General investigate the case of
bogus export documents.
The three are Director General for Customs and Excise
Sahardjo, Tax Director General Fuad Bawazier and Director General
for Financial Institutions Bambang Subianto.
Mar'ie said that assigning the first echelon finance officials
reflected the government's seriousness in dealing with suspected
export fraud.
The minister declined to explain the missions of the three
director generals but sources at the ministry said Sahardjo and
Fuad will probe the possible involvement of their subordinates in
the alleged scam, while Bambang will investigate the role of
commercial banks.
The minister said the use of bogus export documents had caused
great financial losses to the state but he refused to disclose
the exact amount of the losses.
Counterfeit export documents have been widely used to
illegally obtain import duty and value-added tax rebates from the
Export Service Facilitating Agency (Bapeksta) and to obtain the
rediscount facility (subsidized export credit) from Bank
Indonesia (the central bank).
The abuse of the facility has been extensively debated in
local newspapers since last month following the disclosure of
bogus export documents allegedly issued by Detta Marina, a
Jakarta-based garment factory.
Kim Yohannes, the company's owner, reportedly used bogus
export documents to obtain low-interest export credits from the
central bank. He is now under investigation by the Attorney
General's Office.
The export credit facility, carrying low interest rates, was
introduced by the central bank in 1982 to support export-oriented
companies. However, many exporters and commercial banks have
illegally obtained the cheap credit facility by using bogus
export certificates.
Major banks
Three major commercial banks also reportedly used bogus export
documents to obtain subsidized export loans to finance their
lending operations.
The finance minister refused to comment when he was questioned
about the possible involvement of the three banks, which were
reported to have paid fees of around two to three percent to Kim
in return for providing the banks with phony export papers.
"I just support what the Bank Indonesia governor has said," he
said.
Bank Indonesia Governor J. Soedradjad Djiwandono said recently
that the central bank would investigate allegations of commercial
banks' involvement in the abuse of the export credit facility.
"We don't know yet," he said about the alleged involvement of
commercial banks in the scam.
Minister Mar'ie acknowledged yesterday that the abuse of the
government's incentives to promote exports has affected the
country's revenues.
"But it does not mean that we have to suspend the incentive
policy only because of such a breach," he said. (hen)