Entrepreneurs Accusing Ministry Of Industry Officials Involved In Textile Import Mafia Network

JAKARTA - The Alumni Corps Rayon Council of the Islamic Student Association (KAHMI) is pessimistic that the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) will lower the textile import quota.

They suspect that a number of Ministry of Industry officials are involved in the import mafia network.

"The Ministry of Industry will definitely follow their request because several unscrupulous Ministry of Industry officials are actively involved in this mafia network," said KAHMI Executive Director Agus Riyanto in an official statement received by VOI, Monday, September 22.

Agus asked law enforcement officials to investigate the practice of illegal imports, which according to him had been going on for more than five years. He accused the Ministry of Industry officials of often arguing that the import quota was given because domestic producers were unable to meet market needs.

"The Minister should have opened his eyes and wider ears, the closing of dozens of companies that lay off hundreds of thousands of employees was actually caused by the high import quota from the Ministry of Industry," he said.

The saturation with the high import quota was also conveyed by the Alumni Family Association of the Textile-Sekstil Technology High School (IKA Textile) and the Working Convection Entrepreneurs Association (IPKB).

IPKB asks for an import quota of clothing to be limited to a maximum of 50,000 tons per year. The reason is that the national garment production capacity has reached 2.8 million tons.

IPKB also urges the Ministry of Industry to be transparent in calculating textile needs and establishing companies receiving import quotas.

Meanwhile, the Association of Indonesian Filament Filament Serat and Benang Producers (APSyFl) positively welcomed the promise of the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Purbaya Yudhi Sadives to eradicate illegal imports.

"National textile producers are almost desperate to face the practice of illegal importation," said APSYFI General Chair Redma Gita Wiraswasta.

Redma cites tradmap.org data that records the import value of textiles and clothing from China is not recorded in Customs reaching US$1.5-2 billion per year. This figure is equivalent to 28,000 containers of illegal imported goods.

"With the Minister of Finance's statement yesterday, at least one problem has a bright spot to overcome, we just need to solve the problem of high import quotas," he said.

He added that currently intense entrepreneurs communicate with the Ministry of Industry regarding demand and supply calculations, with the hope that the quota policy will not kill local producers.