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)