Wine for New Year parties confiscated

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Thousands of bottles of wine prepared to radiate New Year's Eve in Bali have been confiscated by the North Jakarta Police on Saturday because the owners could not produce the proper documents, the precinct police chief said on Wednesday.

"Based on a-tip off, we took surveillance on several people unloading boxes of wine bottles from two trucks in a warehouse in Kelapa Gading on Dec. 18," Sr. Comr. Syahrul Mama said.

He said that the boxes were about to be loaded onto nine smaller trucks.

According to Syahrul, the workers claimed it was to be delivered to Bali for some events on New Year's Eve.

After checking the import order and excise documents, the police found that some of the documents were forged.

Later the police found a fake Custom and Excise Directorate General stamp.

The police confiscated 25,136 bottles of wine packed in 2,178 boxes and detained the owners of the goods.

"They are from Australia and although we cannot tell the exact value, we can confirm that the wines are of good quality," Syahrul added.

He added that the wine contained 25 percent of ethyl alcohol.

A 1-liter bottle of Australian wine sells between Rp 100,000 (US$11) and Rp 250,000 in Indonesia.

Liquor is included on the Ministry of Finance's list of luxury goods, hence it is subject to 75 percent luxury tax.

Syahrul said the suspects could be charged with forgery as well as smuggling, as stipulated in the Customs and Excise Law.

The offense of smuggling carries a maximum penalty of eight years' imprisonment and a fine of Rp 500 million.