Batam Customs and Excise together with the Indonesian Navy (AL) thwarted the smuggling of 3.5 million cigarettes without excise stamps (illegal) of various brands at Telaga Punggur Port, Batam City, Riau Islands.
The Head of Enforcement and Investigation (P2) of Batam Muhtadi Customs and Excise said the prosecution began with public information regarding the activity of sending excisable goods (BKC) in the form of illegal tobacco products (HT) at Roro ASDP Telaga Punggur Port, Batam City.
"Based on the report, officers then carried out patrols and found loading and unloading activities suspected of illegal excisable goods on the side of Jalan Pattimura which led to the Port of Roro Punggur," Muhtadi said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, May 19.
He explained that when the Customs and Excise patrol officers came to the activity, the driver and laborer who carried out the loading and unloading activity fled leaving the items that had not been loaded.
"The owner of the vehicle is not yet known, what is certain is that it is not an official vehicle, a public lori truck," he said.
Muhtadi, who is also the Head of the Batam Customs Supervision Team, said that the results of the inspection of the goods found 309 tins of cigarettes or 3,530,100 (3.5 million) of tobacco stems from various brands without excise stamps, such as Manchester Double Rive, Rave Ice Menthol, HD Classic and OFO Bold.
Based on these findings, he said, Batam Customs and Excise officers coordinated with the Batam City Lantamal IV Navy asking for help in borrowing trucks to bring the catch items to the Batam Customs Office in Batu Ampar.
Lantamal IV Batam then sent a truck with the number 5025-IV to help carry the goods resulting from the action.
"So this also straightens out the news circulating. The real thing is that the Indonesian Navy trucks are used to bring these items to the Customs Office," he said.
From the results of the in-depth examination, he said, the total number of illegal excisable goods that were successfully prosecuted was 3.5 million sticks, or Rp. 5.3 billion and the potential loss to the state that was saved was estimated at Rp. 2.5 billion.
Wadan Lantamal IV Marine Colonel (P) Ketut Budiantara emphasized the Indonesian Navy's commitment to supporting government priority programs, especially in maintaining the stability of state revenues and creating a healthy business climate, as well as protecting the public from the negative impact of the circulation of illegal excisable goods.
"The Indonesian Navy in Batam strongly supports government programs in increasing state revenue by preventing smuggling," he said.
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Ketut also straightened out the news that the Indonesian Navy truck was secured by Customs for carrying 3.5 million illegal cigarettes at Telaga Punggur Port is not true.
"It needs to be reiterated, that the activities that have been carried out by Customs and Excise based on the synergy carried out, so there is a request from Customs and Excise asking for help from trucks to transport from the TKP to Batu Ampar," he said.
Ketut added that synergy in saving state revenue from smuggling was also carried out by the Navy in the Natuna region, namely thwarting the smuggling of 2.5 million illegal cigarettes.
"This is part of the supervision, we need to disseminate this information to the public so that incidents like this do not happen again," said Ketut.
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