Surveyor refutes reports on textile smuggling

Surveyor refutes reports on textile smuggling

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned PT Surveyor Indonesia (SI) refuted
yesterday the charge made by customs last week that it had filed
false reports for a certain amount of textile imports and
asserted that it had evidence which showed the officials' claims
were untrue.

SI's operations director Ray Williams, in response to
allegations made last week by the Directorate General of Customs
and Excise, said his office had photographs showing the condition
of the imports at the time the inspection took place and before
the containers were sealed.

"(The photographs) clearly show the empty, half-loaded, fully
loaded and sealed containers, the condition of the bales, and the
marking and check-weighing process," Williams said.

"PT SI wishes to assert that at the time these goods were
inspected, packed in the containers and the containers were
sealed, the weights were as declared and PT SI stands by its
findings," he said.

The Directorate General of Customs and Excise said earlier
this month that underweighing and underinvoicing of imports of
textile and textile-related products worth more than US$5,000
were the cause of rampant smuggling of those products into the
country.

The Director for Investigation and Elimination of Smuggling,
Thomas Sugiyata, said his office had seized four 40-foot and two
20-foot containers of imported textiles and apparel which had
been underweighed.

He specially invited journalists and members of the textile
association to see the six containers held up at the Tanjung
Priok port.

Thomas said the six containers were equipped with surveyor
reports, meaning that they had been inspected at points of
loading by SI.

Discrepancies

After reinspection by customs officials, it was discovered
that there were discrepancies between the weight listed in the
reports and that recorded by the customs office, Thomas added.

Thomas said a 40-foot container and a 20-foot container of
textiles shipped from Taiwan had been reported to weigh 9.5 tons,
but customs revealed they actually weighed 33.9 tons, showing a
weight discrepancy of 24.4 tons.

Customs' findings came shortly after the textile association
raised the issue of smuggled textiles earlier this month at a
meeting with President Soeharto.

Williams, however, said yesterday that five -- not six --
containers of textiles were in fact questioned by the customs
office and reported to SI, and only two of them had been
inspected by SI.

Of these five containers, he said, three had never been
inspected by SI. These were consigned to PT Jasa Mulya Sejahtera,
PT Manung Sejati and PT Himalaya Tunas Texindo.

Two containers which had been inspected by SI -- both of which
were consigned to PT Rajawali Sakti -- contained textile job lot
fabrics.

The 40-foot container had 125 bales and the 20-foot container
had 65 bales. The total declared gross weight as shown on the
surveyor's report and the bill of lading and invoice was 9,964
kilograms. Customs said these actually weighed 33,914 kilograms,
resulting in a difference of 23,950 kilograms.

"These goods were inspected by SI in Taiwan and the inspection
report is detailed ... Each bale is individually marked and based
on a check weighing. The marks were found to be correct,"
Williams said.

He said based on the examination of other textile shipments,
it was rather impossible to load only one 20-foot container and
one 40-foot container with a combined total of 33 tons of textile
fabric, the average weight per container of other shipments being
6 tons.

"This is especially the case in view of the fact that the
shipment in question was a shipment of polyester cotton with a
weight of approximately five ounces per square yard, much lighter
than the heavier denim fabrics, which weigh 14 ounces per square
yard," Williams said.

Thomas in his allegations last week did not talk about
smuggled textiles in shipments labeled as being valued at $5000
or less, which are not required to be inspected at points of
loading.

Under the current preshipment inspection system, sea cargo
imports worth more than $5,000 must be inspected at points of
loading by the designated surveyor, state-owned PT Surveyor
Indonesia.

Customs is only allowed to inspect sea cargo imports worth up
to $5,000 and air cargo imports. (pwn)