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ministry'€™s proclaimed success in cutting the time needed for freight clearance at the busy Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta has been promptly refuted by port authorities, amplifying the already poor coordination among government officials.

The Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister, whose minister Rizal Ramli has a knack for headlines, held a press conference on Monday to announce its success in reducing so-called dwelling time.

The ministry'€™s deputy for natural resources and services, Agung Kuswandono, claimed that his office had cut the dwelling time to 3.64 days as of March 14 from 4.7 days last year.

'€œIt'€™s still behind the President'€™s initial target for reducing dwelling times; I think we need to work harder to achieve the target,'€ said Agung, who also heads the dwelling time working unit.

In June last year, President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo sunk his teeth into the stubbornly high dwelling times, which begin from the time a carrier moors at a port to the time its cargo is unloaded and leaves the port, or vice versa.

Jokowi vented his anger before officials responsible for managing the port, after receiving misleading reports that the average dwelling time at Tanjung Priok, which handles more than 60 percent of goods entering the country, was already on par with Singapore and Malaysia at less than three days.

As long dwelling times burden economic efficiency with high logistics costs that ultimately affect the price of goods, the President called for a task force coordinated by Rizal to immediately bring down the time to three days or less in a prioritized policy program.

After Agung boasted of his office'€™s success, Tanjung Priok Port Authority head Bay M. Hasani immediately refuted the claims.

Bay said the port'€™s dwelling times on a monthly average stood at 4.51 days in February, relatively unchanged from last year.

Pre-customs clearance took the biggest chunk of the time with 2.34 days, said Bay, while customs clearance itself only required 0.58 days and post-customs clearance added 1.59 days.

'€œIf the problem was with port infrastructure, it would be my fault, but the flow of documents is outside my authority,'€ he said.

The pre-customs clearance process revolves around permit issuance involving verification by numerous institutions.

Agung agreed that pre-customs clearance involving many institutions was the reason behind the problem.

'€œThe regulations have been eased, but that is not enough. More rules need to be cut to reduce the dwelling time,'€ he said.

Agung said the ministry was aiming to achieve the target of two to three days of dwelling time set by Jokowi in a matter of one or two months.

The government expected to reduce dwelling times at ports to jack up the country'€™s business competitiveness in Southeast Asia.

At present, Indonesia ranks 109th in the World Bank'€™s ease of doing business index, having risen by only one notch from last year'€™s position. Singapore continues to top the list, while Malaysia sits in 18th position.

Minister Rizal, who regularly criticizes Vice President Jusuf Kalla and fellow ministers, has said that reducing the dwelling time would be his priority to show that he was up to the job after being inaugurated by Jokowi in August last year.

Critics have demanded that Rizal focus on his goal rather than publicly airing his dissenting opinions toward Kalla and other ministers.

Jokowi has repeatedly vented his anger over disagreements between his ministers and ordered them to focus on carrying out their tasks amid public doubts.

While long dwelling times resulted mainly from red tape, officials involved in the reform seem to have prescribed the wrong medicine to resolve the problem.

The port authority has slapped expensive fees on failure to clear containers on time in order to encourage the owners to immediately process the necessary documents of release.

A two-day delay in taking out a container from the port can cost the owner a 900 percent increase in the rate for stacking services.

'€œThis is meant to speed up the flow of goods out of the port, with tariffs that create a warning effect. If they don'€™t want to pay much, they need to move their goods faster,'€ Bay said.

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has protested the policy, stating it hurt the business dearly.

'€œThey should instead take care of their port management and regulations to reduce dwelling times,'€ Kadin said in a statement.
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