Following up on the President's direction at the Cabinet Meeting to tighten the flow of imported goods, the Ministry of Finance through the Directorate General of Customs and Excise in collaboration with the Directorate General of Consumer Protection and Commerce (PKTN) of the Ministry of Trade and the Criminal Investigation Unit of the National Police destroyed 638 bales of illegal used clothing at the Customs Stockpile. (TPP) Cikarang Customs and Excise on Thursday (26/10). The extermination was a follow-up to a joint operation by the three agencies on 10 to 15 October 2023 in the Banten, Jakarta and West Java provinces.
"We have succeeded in taking action against 638 bales of clothing, where from Pasar Senen there were 2 trucks with 113 bales, then from Bandung Pasar Gedebage there were 221 bales. And for Jakarta other than Pasar Senen there are another 200 additional bales. Especially for Pasar Senen, where action was taken on October 12, another 104 bales were found. "So this is an operation carried out by taking action against 638 bales of used clothes," said Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani Indrawati at a press conference for the destruction of illegal used clothes on Thursday (26/10).
The Minister of Finance said that the increased supervision was carried out as a step to protect the public and domestic industry, in accordance with one of the functions of Customs and Excise, which is community protector.
"Of course, with the aim of keeping society safe and still getting the goods they need with good quality, domestic industry can also be maintained, and domestic markets can still have activities but without damaging the industrial structure or unfair competition," said the Minister of Finance.
Apart from destroying 638 bales of illegal used clothing, the Minister of Finance revealed the results of other monitoring that had been carried out. First, Tanjung Priok Customs and Excise took action against 2,401 bales of illegal used clothing worth IDR 12 billion. Second, Cikarang Customs and Excise is taking action against textile products in the form of 51,530 carpets or prayer mats worth IDR 1.8 billion, which will be donated to the Bekasi Regional Government and community leaders. Other operations were carried out by the PKTN Directorate General which produced evidence in the form of steel products, pipes, SNI mandatory commodities, forestry products, electronics, cosmetics, food and beverages, measuring instruments, and textiles and textile products (TPT).
Regarding all these illegal commodity monitoring actions, the Minister of Finance emphasized that the problem of illegal importation is not just the responsibility of one government agency. Synergy and coordination between agencies is needed to resolve these problems from upstream to downstream.
"We will continue to collaborate with all Ministries and Institutions to deal with the problem of illegal imports because this cannot be done by one institution alone. There must be close cooperation. We will carry out this supervision because we protect small and medium businesses in Indonesia and also protect consumers. I hope that we will all continue to monitor and take action consistently so that the Indonesian economy can be maintained in times where the current world environment is very, very pressing with the dynamics that are occurring geopolitically. "This is a good form of cooperation as an example of the state's presence in society and in the Indonesian economy," said the Minister of Finance.
Also present at this activity were Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto, Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan, Head of the National Police Criminal Investigation Unit, Commissioner General Pol. Wahyu Widada, Director General of Customs and Excise Askolani, representatives from the Attorney General's Office and KemenkopUKM, as well as a number of officials from related Ministries/Institutions.
