Customs And Excise, Ministry Of Trade, And Kemenkop UKM Destroy 7,000 Bal Imported Clothing Worth IDR 80 Billion

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

The Directorate General of Customs and Excise of the Ministry of Finance together with the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) and the Ministry of Cooperatives (Kemenkop) and SMEs as well as related ranks today destroyed 7,000 bales of used illegal imported clothes which were confiscated by the government.

Director General of Customs and Excise Askolani said that the value destroyed was equivalent to Rp80 billion.

"This is certainly a joint step to be able to carry out law enforcement and protect our domestic economy," he said in Cikarang, Bekasi on Tuesday, March 28.

According to Askolani, illegal used import clothes also have risks in terms of health because they do not go through an adequate quarantine process.

"We have to protect consumers, besides we previously protected MSMEs," he said.

Askolani added that his party would not stop here and would continue to strengthen cooperation and coordination with related ministries/agencies.

"We will take precautions at the port, in the waters to protect MSME traders who can help our domestic economy," he said.

On the same occasion, Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan revealed that this action was a further step from President Jokowi's directive some time ago.

Previously, we also took action in Pekanbaru, in East Java and this was the culmination of the destruction of 7,000 used bales worth Rp80 billion.

The Trade Minister said that imports of used goods have been strictly prohibited by law.

"In general, imports that are used to be banned except those that have been regulated are allowed. For example, imports of F-16 aircraft for defense. If you buy new ones are expensive, so buy used ones, so there are requirements," he said.

Meanwhile, Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki said that the domestic market has been controlled by illegal imports for a long time. He revealed that the entry of illegal imported clothing absorbed a portion of 31 percent of the domestic market. Meanwhile, imported clothing products from China have a portion of 17.4 percent.

"Of course this will have an impact on the labor sector and have the potential to make the local clothing industry continue to be depressed," he said.

To note, the Central Statistics Agency reports that the import value of illegal used clothing (unrecorded) in the last five years has reached an average of IDR 100 trillion per year.

In detail, the potential value of imports of illegal clothing in 2018 reached IDR 89.37 trillion. The following year it reached IDR 89.06 trillion and jumped in 2020 to reach IDR 110.28 trillion. Then in 2021 and 2022 it reached IDR 103.68 trillion and IDR 104.41 trillion, respectively.