Purbaya Wants To Brush Import Mafia, Ministry Of Industry Is Ready To Clean Up If Officials Are Involved

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry Febri Hendri Antoni Arief (Photo; Doc. VOI)

The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) responded to the statement of the Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Purbaya Yudhi Sadive regarding the eradication of the textile import mafia. The Ministry of Industry positively welcomes the steps taken by the State Treasurer and is ready to carry out cleaning at the internal level.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry, Febri Hendri Antoni Arief, did not deny the potential for abuse of authority in the ministry. However, he said, the Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita is ready to clean up all rogue Ministry of Industry officials.

"But I'm not saying that there is no chance of corruption from the Ministry of Industry, there is. The Minister always conveys it, please give us input, we will clean up all rogue officials at the Ministry of Industry," Febri said in the October 2025 release at the Ministry of Industry Building, Jakarta, Thursday, October 30.

However, Febri reminded, the authority of the Ministry of Industry regarding textile importation is only about 40 percent of the total textile products that enter Indonesia. The rest is held by other ministries/agencies.

"The authority of the Ministry of Industry comes from the granting of authority by other ministries. And of the total HS given authority, the Ministry of Industry is only 50 percent, even 44 percent of the HS code. Meanwhile, textile products enter Indonesia a lot for all HS codes," he said.

"And we think that in importing textile products or other communities, right, not only in the Ministry of Industry. For example, imports, right, there are also other ministries that issue PI (import approval), then supervision or checking at ports," he added.

The Ministry of Industry also assessed that Purbaya's statement so far shows partiality to the industry. For example, Purbaya's firmness in closing the gap for smuggling goods into Indonesia. Febri said this was in accordance with President Prabowo Subianto's direction.

"And the smuggling of imported goods, right, something is positive and we support it. Therefore it will protect the domestic industry. The domestic industry is protected if illegal smuggling or importation is eradicated. We support that," said Febri.