Spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin), Febri Hendri Antoni Arif, said that the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) has not been transparent regarding the contents of 26,415 containers that were detained and then released from the port in May 2024. In fact, the Ministry of Industry needs detailed data information to mitigate the impact of the release.
“Until now, the Ministry of Industry has not been able to formulate policies or anticipatory steps to prevent the release of the container contents. This is unfortunate because the performance of the domestic manufacturing industry has declined in July 2024 based on the S&P Global Manufacturing Industry Confidence Index and Purchasing Manager’s Index,” said Febri from a statement received on Tuesday (6/8).
Febri said that Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita had received a reply letter from the Minister of Finance which was delivered and signed by the Director General of Customs and Excise.
In the reply letter, the Director General of Customs and Excise submitted data on the contents of 26,415 containers grouped based on the Board Economic Category (BEC). Among them, 21,166 containers were raw and auxiliary materials (80.13%), 3,356 containers of consumer goods (12.7%), and 1,893 containers of capital goods (7.17%).
Unfortunately, the data is still too macro and there are no details detailing what goods are coming in. Febri said that Customs and Excise only explained the contents of 12,994 containers or 49.19% of the total data of 26,415 containers. While the rest of the 13,421 containers were not explained properly.
“It seems like there is hidden data. This is strange and odd, considering that the Director General of Customs and Excise claims to have cleared all the containers from the port,” he said.
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On the other hand, the import application from the Ministry of Industry is based on the 8-digit HS Code and is contained in the import document held by the Directorate General of Customs and Excise. While the information submitted in the reply letter is the 2-digit HS Code.
“In fact, the Ministry of Industry asked the Directorate General of Customs and Excise to provide detailed data on imported goods with 8-digit HS Codes from 26,415 containers piled up at the ports,” he added.
Responding to this, the Director of Communication and Guidance for Customs Service Users, Nirwala Dwi Heriyanto, emphasized that there was nothing hidden from the release of 26 thousand containers that were previously held up.
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“Hidden how? Which one is not transparent? Please ask,” said Nirwala when met in Cikarang, West Java on Tuesday (6/8).
Nirwala also said that Customs had carried out the request from the Minister of Industry regarding the contents of the 26 thousand containers that had been detained.
“If it’s not clear, ask us. At first, he asked what the contents were, so we explained. That’s it. The person who was asked what the contents were, we told him based on the economic port category used in the HS code so that the data is the same,” he said. (Z-11)
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