Seaport police in dilemma over containers at Tanjung Priok
Seaport police in dilemma over containers at Tanjung Priok
JAKARTA (JP): Tanjung Priok Seaport Police (KP3) in North
Jakarta admit that they're still unable to properly examine every
container coming in and out of the country's busiest seaport.
KP3 chief Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang said that his personnel
have the right to make such inspections but significant barriers
have prevented them from doing their job.
One of the biggest problems is the heavy volume of merchandise
coming out of the port, some 2,500 container trucks per day,
Edward told The Jakarta Post recently.
"The flow is heavy. It takes extra time and effort to manage
the traffic, let alone to examine each and every container," said
Edward, who will be promoted as South Jakarta Police Chief next
month.
He added that owners of the goods often refuse to let police
check the containers thoroughly, saying that such inspections
hurt business. After all, time is money.
"The entrepreneurs even question our reasons for inspecting
the goods since the seaport's Customs and Excise officials have
already given their okay to the containers," Edward explained.
The port police actually have the authority to examine all
containers which are about to leave the port even though they
have been okayed and sealed by the Customs and Excise officials,
he said.
According to Edward, the businessmen go to the police only
when their containers are missing or stolen.
The Customs and Excise office, he said, coordinate with the
port police only when they come up with certain suspicious items,
such as guns and drugs.
"Most of the time we confiscate the smuggled goods after they
have been released by the Customs officials," he said, citing the
recent success story of his men in foiling the attempted
smuggling of luxury cars, which had been disassembled into
pieces, into the country.
Ever since the monetary turmoil hit the nation in mid-1997,
businessmen have continuously imported used products, like tires,
luxury cars, motorcycles, refrigerators and photocopy machines,
mostly from Singapore.
But some smugglers have taken advantage of the situation and
have, for instance, disassembled the cars, such as Ferraris, to
give the impression they were importing spare parts, or the
wrecks of used cars.
On March 9, Edward and his men confiscated 67 luxury cars, all
of which had been disassembled. Some of the cars had been split
in half, to be welded later by the owners before selling them.
Edward believed that several Customs and Excise officials at
the port could have "played a significant role" in the smuggling
of the cars since such goods should have been inspected through
the red lane.
"But the customs officials released them anyway," he said.
Separately, head of the operation section at Directorate
General of Tax and Excise's office for Jakarta chapter Mathias
Buluama denied the accusation.
"What smuggling? The cars all had valid documents. We have to
let them go when the tax is paid and the containers have legal
documents," he told the Post on Thursday.
"The owner of the Ferraris, for instance, stated that he
legally imported the three Ferraris from overseas," Mathias said,
referring to the expensive cars seized recently by police, who
labeled the vehicles as smuggled goods.
The case of the disassembled cars is also the same, he said.
"They (legally) came in parts and by stages, not in one
shipment. It would be different if they imported completely-
knocked-down cars in a single container.
In the Ferrari case, he said, the owner broke the seals of the
customs officials. The seal was bonded on the cars, waiting for
the license to be issued by the Ministry of Industry and
Commerce.
"The owner broke the seals and used the cars on the street and
that was when police caught him," he said.
"Breaking the seals can cost you two years in prison or a fine
of Rp 150 million according to Law No. 10/1995 on Customs and
Excise," Mathias explained.
According to him, the public has a different perception of
smuggling.
"The law categorizes smuggling as an activity of transferring
goods without following proper procedures, or of trying to fake
the information of an item's quantity, price, or type," he said.
"But we call these things document manipulations instead of
smuggling because they are transferring the goods through proper
channels such as Tanjung Priok seaport," he added. (09/nvn)