T

he government relaunched on Wednesday its export-import licensing website, the Indonesia National Single Window (INSW), with new features and services to support efforts to cut red tape and unify data.

The new updated website will also be integrated with the ASEAN Single Window slated to begin at year-end.

Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said the portal had integrated export and import licensing from 18 units of 15 ministries and institutions and had been in operation at 21 sea, air and land ports across the country.

The website currently covers around 95 percent of the nation'€™s export and import services.

'€œWe are setting the website to be a single registration for exports and imports,'€ he said during the new INSW web launch in Central Jakarta.

Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution and Communication and Information Minister Rudiantara were among the attendees.

The website, which was first launched in 2007 to manage the country'€™s inflow and outflow of goods, includes new services such as a single submission application option, online quota update and export data access.

The single submission simplifies the licensing processes by requiring traders to submit applications only once as the portal will forward them to all related ministries and institutions.

The website also enables businesspeople and the government to monitor commodities'€™ quotas as it will update them online based on permits issued for such commodities.

Finance Ministry expert team member Susiwijono said on Wednesday that the portal would soon open access for Indonesian foreign exchange banks and Bank Indonesia (BI) into the site'€™s foreign exchange earnings from exports (DHE) data to help them match goods and funds flows.

'€œWe have to do this because DHE will be used as a legal basis to propose tax incentives,'€ he said, adding that the open access would also prevent exporters from making up their reports. He stated that the access would be granted within one month.

Minister Darmin said that with the INSW, licensing procedures would be '€œcrystal clear'€.

'€œTraders can check their permit'€™s progress online,'€ he said, adding that the website could help with the government'€™s deregulation efforts.

Besides providing new services, the INSW also has two new features; namely the Indonesia National Trade Repository (INTR) and the ASEAN Single Window. The INTR provides information regarding Indonesia'€™s export and import regulations and procedures as the country is preparing to merge with the ASEAN Single Window shortly.

Of 10 ASEAN countries, currently only Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam are ready to apply the ASEAN Single Window by this year-end. The single window will enable the countries to integrate their permits, Certificates of Origin (COO), health certificates, invoices and manifests in export and import processes.

Indonesian Exporters Association (GPEI) secretary-general Toto Dirgantoro told The Jakarta Post that an integrated system could prevent corrupt traders from misusing permits.

'€œWe do hope with the ASEAN Single Window, export documents can also be import permits in the destination country, and vice versa,'€ he said over the phone.

He added that the government, however, needed to improve the website as it sometimes crashed and could not be accessed by traders and customs officials. (prm)