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Customs office notches up huge haul
State income from import and export duties and fines imposed at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang has increased by 50 percent in 2008 from last year's figures
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tate income from import and export duties and fines imposed at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang has increased by 50 percent in 2008 from last year's figures.
The airport recorded Rp 9 trillion (US$780 million) in duties and fines from cargo and airline passengers, up from Rp 6 trillion last year, Eko Darmanto, chief of intelligence at the airport's Customs and Excise Office, said Monday.
"It's 160 percent higher than our target," he added.
He said the increase was due to higher trade and more stringent customs checks. The airport has not seen a significant decline in the transfer of goods, despite the global financial downturn, but lower traffic is expected over the next six months.
"In any case, we will step up our checks to ensure steady state income and to prevent goods entering that may harm local industries, because the decline in exports to the United States and Europe may cause more goods to enter Indonesia," Eko said.
Customs officials have raised their guard to tackle more offenses, from tampering with the prices of goods to trafficking.
"Many (exporters and importers) declare lower prices for their products, but we check them first before giving them clearance," Eko said.
"If we find any inconsistencies, we can fine them even more than the original duties they should have forked out. The law says fines can range from 100 to 1,000 percent."
Importers and exporters can challenge such punishment at the tax court.
"But the percentage of people who take it up at court is very small," he added.
Customs officials at the airport also foiled 400 cases of attempted trafficking this year.
"Most of the would-be smugglers were airline passengers or courier services. We imposed Rp 6 billion in fines for those who tried sneaking past customs without paying. It was mainly mobile phones and medicine they were trying to get through," he said.
Along with collecting duties, customs officials also busted 13 cross-border drug trafficking attempts 32 domestic ones. Last year, only two attempts were foiled.
This year's achievement was in spite of the more streamlined customs office.
"The total number of customs officials was reduced from 700 to 500. For the checking and monitoring department, there are 120 officers, down from 150 last year. It is not always the case that more manpower means more effective work. However, the ideal case is to have more members and still work effectively," Eko pointed out.
"Ideally, there are at least 165 checkpoints with monitoring devices throughout the airport. But we only have eight devices, so the rest must be done manually."
The airport is looking to increase the number of devices and adopt a computerized checking system, as well as put up more CCTV cameras next year. A laboratory is planned for checking chemical compounds, and intensified training for sniffer dogs is in the works.
"We submitted our budget to the government in the middle the year, and we're now awaiting their decision," he said.
Custom officials pay particular attention to flights to and from gateways that traditionally net more offenses, including Germany, the Netherlands, China, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.
