Waste paper import rule to be revoke: Singgih

Waste paper import rule to be revoke: Singgih

JAKARTA (JP): Attorney General Singgih said yesterday he will
soon revoke the ruling issued by his office in the early 1980s
that requires that waste paper imports be shipped in container
boxes instead of in bulk cargo.

"We are now reviewing the ruling," Singgih said in response to
reporters' questions as to why the Attorney General's Office is
involved in regulating waste paper imports, thereby increasing
the costs of that material.

Singgih clarified that his office will maintain its
responsibility for preventing the smuggling of pornography and
ideologically dangerous information through waste paper imports.

Singgih's disclosure yesterday answered the puzzling questions
about the costly red tape in waste paper importing and stopped
the debate between several government offices over the issue.

An official of the industry ministry disclosed early this
week that Minister of Industry Tunky Ariwibowo had sent letters
to the trade minister and the chief of the Environmental
Management Agency asking them to free waste paper imports and to
lift waste paper out of the classification of dangerous and toxic
materials.

Tunky's letters were prompted by complaints from paper
producers that the import costs of waste paper -- their main raw
material -- are unusually high due to the requirement to ship
waste paper in container boxes and to have the container boxes
checked by officials of the trade and industry ministries and the
Attorney General's Office.

The complaints have been expressed amid reports of the steep
increase in the price of newsprint over the last few months.

However, Nabiel Makarim, deputy chief of the Environmental
Management Agency, stated on Tuesday that his office had nothing
to do with the ruling on the use of containers and had never
classified waste paper among dangerous and toxic wastes.

Makarim added that any regulation of import procedures was the
responsibility of the trade ministry.

Shipping

Minister of Trade Satrio B. Joedono said on a separate
occasion yesterday that his office had never required waste paper
imports to be shipped in container boxes.

"Why don't you ask the industry minister as to which ruling of
my office has imposed such a requirement," Joedono told newsmen
after he attended a seminar on power marketing yesterday.

He said he did not see any urgency in requiring waste paper
imports to be shipped in container boxes.

"But I don't know who has imposed such a ruling. If such a
regulation does exist, it should be revoked by the one who has
issued it," Joedono added.

The trade minister was not the only one who did not know the
source of the ruling. Tunky's letters to the trade minister and
the Environmental Management Agency also disclosed uncertainty on
the matter.

Joedono also said that the steep rise in the costs of waste
paper imports has been caused mainly by the larger demand for
that material.

The use of waste paper has dramatically increased as
environmental rulings have forced many paper mills to decrease
the use of wood pulp, Joedono added.

In a related development, Amirudin Saud, chairman of the
Importers Association, said containerized cargo is 10 percent
costlier than bulk cargo.

If waste paper imports are allowed to be shipped in bulk form,
their shipment and handling costs will be lower than those in
container boxes, Amirudin added. (vin)