Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives also responded to the rampant import of illegal textile products in Indonesia in recent times. Based on data from BI, BPS, APSyFI processed by Indotextile, the number of imports of illegal textile products will reach 320,000 tons in 2022 or an increase compared to the previous year which was 285,000 tons. Imports of illegal textile products in 2022 are equivalent to 16,000 containers per year or 1,333 containers per month. The total loss due to imports of illegal textile products in 2022 will reach IDR 32.48 trillion, assuming an exchange rate of IDR 14,500 per US dollar. The government has the potential to lose Rp 19 trillion in revenue due to the illegal imports.

In the data, the types of imports of illegal textile products consist of unprocedural imports such as wholesale, under invoice, transhipment, and HS fugitives; seepage of bonded zones, bonded warehouses, bonded logistics centers, and abuse of import facilities for export purposes (KITE); abuse of API-P and API-U import permits; as well as the import of used clothes.

Chairman of Commission VI of the House of Representatives, Faisol Riza, said that importing illegal textile products is certainly an act against the law. In fact, he considered illegal imports to be part of an effort to smuggle goods from abroad to within the country.

The circulation of illegally imported textile products has become a problem that occurs repeatedly every year. In fact, specifically for imported used illegal clothes, the demand for these products is quite high. That is, there is a market for such products.

"The government needs to be wise in making regulations so that the local community's economy continues to spin. Moreover, the business actors affected by illegal imports are all from MSMEs," he explained, Wednesday (29/3).

Faisol also said that his party had plans to discuss the issue of illegal textile imports with relevant stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Trade, Ministry of Industry, Directorate General of Customs and Excise, Ministry of Finance, to textile business actors. Unfortunately, he has not explained clearly when this meeting with stakeholders will be held.

"Of course we will summon it, because the Regulation of the Minister of Trade (Permendag) Import Ban is not effective," he added.

Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Fiber and Filament Yarn Producers (APSyFI) Redma Gita Wirawasta previously suspected that illegal imports of textile products using the wholesale mode, under invoice, transhipment and abuse of import permits were carried out by the same players.

"The players are the same, there are around 5-7 people where each person has about 20 companies," he said, Sunday (26/3).

He also said that the import of used clothes might be carried out by players who are different from the illegal import mode mentioned earlier.

Some importers of textile products have already been arrested. However, those caught were only individuals, not the leaders of the illegal imports.

APSyFI also said that the practice of importing illegal textile products appeared to be happening massively. This is considering that 90% of the total 320,000 tons of imports of illegal textile products occurred in the second half of 2022, considering that in the first half of last year the freight rate for ship transportation was still expensive.

"This practice has mushroomed, is structured and organized among importers, port officials and policy makers," said Redma.

He also suggested the need to form a task force directly under President Joko Widodo to eradicate the practice of importing illegal textile products.