Chaotic Imported Fruit That Ends Claims In Court

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Confusion over the fruit import issue has led to court. The government was sued at the State Administrative Court (PTUN) regarding the issuance of fruit and vegetable import permits which were deemed not providing a sense of justice.

The Association of Indonesian Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exporters and Importers (Aseibssindo) sued the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Trade over policy recommendations and import permits whose management was unclear.

Aseibssindo's attorney, Ayub A Fina, in his statement Thursday, April 23, explained that a lawsuit was filed against the Minister of Agriculture (Mentan) Syahrul Yasin Limpo regarding the management of Horticultural Product Import Recommendations (RIPH). The association feels that it is being complicated by the Ministry of Agriculture (Kementan). In fact, from the management that is considered to be discriminatory, the Association suspects that there is a game in the publication of this RIPH.

"Actually, if the agricultural issue is related to RIPH, it seems that the requests from these members during the period from December 2019 to March 2020 were mostly rolled back. Meanwhile, in certain positions, agriculture secretly issued certain elements of certain groups," said Ayub.

He gave an example, on January 17, 2020, there were 23 companies that were actually clean and clear, and all the requirements had been met. So, it is proper for the Ministry of Agriculture to issue RIPH for the 23 companies. Strangely, none of the 23 who submitted it received a recommendation, in fact there were 3 others that were published.

"At the same time, we saw that there was only use. At that time, there was one license that was issued which was fantastic, namely around 15,000 tons and it was questioned at the DPR," said Ayub, who is also the General Chair of Aseibssindo.

Aseibssindo felt another irregularity. After the licenses were issued for the three companies, the Ministry of Agriculture no longer issued RIPH. All submissions from multiple companies are rolled back or have to start over with the original procedure. The reason is, there are problems with technical requirements as stated in Regulation Number 39 of 2009.

"With this trip, we finally made efforts to seek justice. The hope is that it will be better for the future. Because I am suing the third time, twice until the inkraacht," he explained.

On the other hand, the plaintiff also assessed that the Ministry of Trade was in line with the Ministry of Agriculture. In the Ministry of Agriculture, RIPH is issued very slowly, and the Ministry of Trade is considered to be equally bad in issuing SPI (Import Approval Letter).

"We registered a lawsuit against the Ministry of Trade regarding the issuance of SPI this afternoon. Because since March, this importer submitted an application but it has not been published until now," said Ayub.

Held Next Week

In the regulations, the Ministry of Trade should have been able to say whether it was accepted or not after two days of receiving an application for an import permit. If accepted, an SPI must be issued immediately.

Conversely, if it is not accepted, there must be an improvement so that it is returned. However, there was no clear explanation from the Ministry of Trade regarding the process being carried out by importers in the association.

"Even in force majeure conditions, the time is only three days. This is our basis for registering the lawsuit. The Ministry of Trade is suspected of violating laws, including Permendag 44/2019, Law 18/2012 on food, Law 7/2014 on trade, among others. Law 13/2010 on horticulture and Law 5/1999 on monopolistic practices, "he said.

The first trial of a lawsuit against the Ministry of Agriculture is scheduled at the Jakarta State Administrative Court on Wednesday, April 22, 2020. Unfortunately, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture were not present at the hearing.

The trial is then set for next week, on Wednesday, April 29. When confirmed, the PTUN has not provided any information regarding the agenda for the lawsuit against the ministry agency.

For information, Secretary of the Directorate General of Horticulture at the Ministry of Agriculture Liliek Srie Utami said the issuance of the Horticultural Product Import Recommendation (RIPH) has been processed electronically for all applicants. The Ministry of Agriculture assesses that the processing is in accordance with the provisions based on the Minister of Agriculture Regulation Number 39 of 2019 in conjunction with Regulation of the Minister of Agriculture Number 02 of 2020.

"The process of giving RIPH is carried out in a transparent manner and can be monitored online," said Liliek.

Especially for the import of grapes, the RIPH that has been issued until March 12, 2020 has reached 26,470 tons. However, it was not clear that the importing company got the RIPH for the fruit.