Director General of Customs and Excise (Dirjen Customs) of the Ministry of Finance Askolani said that the import of used clothes or clothes is still rife. His party has taken action in a number of areas starting from Sumatra, Kalimantan, to Sulawesi. The ban on the import of used clothing with the HS 6309 tariff heading is regulated in the Minister of Trade Regulation Number 51/M-DAG/PER/7/2015 concerning the Prohibition of Importing Used Clothing and the Minister of Trade Regulation Number 18 of 2021 concerning Export Prohibited Goods and Import Prohibited Goods.

"The action has been taken. There are a lot of them. Usually they enter through rat ports that we don't monitor," he said at the DPR RI Building, Tuesday, February 14, 2023.

The port of rat that he means is a small port that is not included in the supervision area of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DJBC). Askolani said that there is a rat port in the coastal area of Sumatra, so this issue is the responsibility of the Ministry of Transportation and the local government.

According to him, most of the imports of used clothes come through Malaysia and Singapore. Meanwhile, he stated that he would continue to take action against the perpetrators who committed these violations.

The Ministry of Trade has tightened control over imports of used goods, including used clothing, and illegal thrifting businesses. This is to anticipate the impact of the deteriorating global economy, especially what happened to the domestic textile industry.

"We are in the process of securing textiles, especially labor-intensive ones, which will apply temporary safeguard measure import duties and temporary anti-dumping import duties," said Acting Director General of Domestic Trade, Kasan, Friday, January 6, 2023 .

This action will be carried out together with the Indonesian Trade Security Committee (KPPI) and the Indonesian Anti-Dumping Committee (KADI). Kasan explained that KPPI and KADI would investigate for about 60 days. If the investigation is complete, the rules of the security measures will apply for 200 days.

Kasan emphasized that the import of used clothing is an illegal activity and is very detrimental to domestic textile businesses. In addition, currently, the textile industry is experiencing pressure due to a decrease in export demand. As a result, there have been layoffs or mass layoffs of employees in a number of regions in Indonesia.

Therefore, the government is currently trying to strengthen the Indonesian market to absorb domestic production. By cooperating with KPPI and KADI, he assessed that the government through the Ministry of Trade could strengthen the domestic market so that Indonesia could survive external pressures.