Sri Mulyani Asks For No More Than 3 Percent Of Illegal Cigarettes, Subordinates At Customs: Impossible Ma'am!

Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani. (Photo: Instagram @smindrawati)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani asked all staff, especially Customs and Excise, to maintain the circulation of illegal cigarettes so that they do not exceed 3 percent of the total national cigarette production.

"Friends at Customs think it is a rather abstruse target instruction, but I persistently keep it at 3 percent," he said, Wednesday, January 27.

The Minister of Finance argued that the increase in tobacco excise rates which will be implemented this year will encourage the massive circulation of illegal cigarettes. For that, he asked that the handling of illegal cigarettes be more aggressive.

"We do this to protect domestic industries and also workers who work in this sector," he said.

In the presentation, it was also stated that the rate of illegal cigarette circulation in 2020 was 4.9 percent. Meanwhile, the prosecution carried out by Customs and Excise succeeded in securing 448 million illegal cigarettes over the past year with an estimated value of IDR370 billion.

The government's efforts to control illegal cigarettes by no more than 3 percent seem to need to work extra hard. This is because the average circulation of illicit cigarettes in the last 10 years has been at the level of 6.4 percent. Only in 2019 did the government claim that illegal cigarettes could be reduced by 3 percent.

Meanwhile, it is believed that the total production of this tobacco commodity throughout 2021 will exceed 288.8 billion cigarettes, lower than the previous year's period of 298.4 billion cigarettes.