T

he customs and excise office raided Sunday morning a house in Kota Bambu, West Jakarta, allegedly used as an illegal duty stamp printing factory, estimated to have cost the state Rp 560 billion (US$509 million) in lost revenues.

The Finance Ministry's Directorate General of Customs and Excise raided the house in Kota Bambu after midnight and arrested two suspects, identified only as BS and H. Another suspect, identified as S, managed to escape.

A joint team of West and East Jakarta customs and excise officers also raided the house of BS in Tangerang, where they found 99 rolls of holograms, ten cans of ink, a computer with a scanner and a printer.

At the house in Kota Bambu, officials confiscated more than 500,000 stamps ready to be distributed, 50 rolls of holograms, seven rolls of 58-gram stamp paper and a Volvo sedan.

Director General of the Financial Ministry's customs and excise office Anwar Supriyadi said Sunday the factory has been operating for seven years. His office estimated the group reaped Rp 80 billion annually (around US$7.7 million).

He said Sunday's raid was the biggest bust in the customs office's history. The factory is believed to belong to one of the biggest counterfeit duty stamp rings in Indonesia.

"BS' ring is the biggest and the printing quality *of its counterfeit duty stamps* is the best of all the factories the customs' offices managed to raid so far," he said, as quoted by Antara.

According to Anwar, the fake hologram stamps looked almost the same as the real ones.

"Ultraviolet detectors could not detect the fake cigarette custom duty stamp. It can only be detected by a special machine called a hologram reader," he said.

Officials also found a Heidelberg printing machine, two paper cutting machines, a hologram paper cutting machine, a pressing machine for holograms and many printing plate inks.

Anwar said he would continue to hunt down the illegal custom stamp ring.

"After operating for seven years, their network would certainly be vast," he said.

BS' house raid in Tangerang was carried out to find out the extent of the network. The officers followed the lead after questioning BS, who said he owned residences in Lippo Karawaci Tangerang and in Surabaya.

"From that information, customs officers carried out a raid in Tangerang and Surabaya," Anwar said.

The state yields Rp 51 trillion in revenue from customs duty on alcoholic beverages and cigarettes, Rp 3 trillion higher than the targeted Rp 48 trillion. Anwar said if there was no illegal custom stamp selling, revenues would be even bigger.

Under the Customs Law, the suspects are punishable with an 8-year prison sentence or can be fined up to ten times the amount lost by the state.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani promoted and transferred officials from the customs and excise office late last month in a bid to reform the bureau she is heading. The customs and excise office, along with the tax office, were the first main targets for reform as they have historically been hotbeds for corruption.

Last year, officials from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) searched the excise and customs office in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, in a surprise inspection.