Purbaya Says Customs And Excise Is Threatened To Be Freezed If Performance Doesn't Improve

Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadive (photo: Antara)

Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadive stated that the Directorate General of Customs and Excise is at risk of being frozen due to unsatisfactory performance, both by state leaders and by the public.

This situation arose after various problems emerged to the public, including the absence of supervision at the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) airport and the case of the entry of 250 tons of illegal rice through Sabang, Aceh.

"We will clean it up. So Customs and Excise, I have called them, we have an internal meeting. We discuss it with them, I say this, the Customs image is not good in the media, in the community, in our highest leadership. So we have to fix it," he told the media crew, Thursday, November 27.

Purbaya said that he had asked President Prabowo Subianto to give one year to make improvements.

"I told them, I have asked the President for one year not to be disturbed first, give me time to improve Customs and Excise, because of serious threats," he said.

According to him, the government has also opened an option to submit customs and excise functions to a private Swiss company, Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS), as it was in the New Order era.

For information at the time, President Soeharto had frozen the Directorate General of Customs and Excise in 1985 due to rampant extortion and smuggling, and the condition lasted until 1995.

"If Customs and Excise cannot improve their performance and the public is still dissatisfied, Customs can be frozen, replaced with SGS. Like in the past," he said.

He emphasized that Customs and Excise employees already understand the risks, so they are now more eager to make improvements, one of the steps is to increase digitization in all Customs offices to prevent irregularities.

"Now the progress is quite good. I think next year it will be safe, meaning Customs will be able to work well and professionally," he said.

He reminded that there is a possibility that the Directorate General of Customs and Excise is frozen, which could have an impact on 16,000 employees.

"Because of this I said, if we fail to improve, then 16 thousand Customs employees will be laid off. Customs and Excise people are smart and ready to change the situation," he explained.