Customs And Excise Forms Task Force To Monitor Illegal Cigarette Online Sales At E-Commerce

Photo via Antara.

KUDUS - Transactions for selling illegal cigarettes online or e-commerce will be monitored specifically by the Kudus Customs and Excise Supervision and Service Office (KPPBC).

Head of KPPBC TMC Kudus Moh Arif Setijo Nugroho said his party had formed a task force for the supervision by alerting 15 personnel.

"A total of 15 task forces that we have prepared will serve 24 hours non-stop in turn to monitor the traffic of illegal cigarette transactions through electronic trading," he said during a press conference at the KPPBC TMC Kudus Office, Central Java, Thursday, March 9, which was confiscated by Antara.

The task force, he said, would analyze and conduct cyber patrols because the trend of illegal cigarette trafficking through e-commerce tends to increase. Moreover, the number of accounts in the marketplace reaches millions of accounts.

This, he said, could not be separated from the facilities provided by facilitators in the market place, while their human resources (HR) were limited, so they could not deactivate accounts selling illegal goods.

The prosecution team will carry out executions in the field after obtaining sufficient information. Meanwhile, the disclosure of cases of illegal illegal cigarette sales online began in September 2021, successfully uncovering the circulation of illegal cigarettes offered through electronic trade by arresting the perpetrator and illegal cigarette evidence at the delivery service location located on Jalan Raya Bungo Ketapang, Demak Regency.

The evidence that was secured was four envelopes or 40 packs and eight packages containing a total of 107 illegal cigarettes with various brands without being attached to excise stamps and using fake excise stamps and securing the perpetrators.

Arif said, the trend of illegal cigarette cases through online sales has increased, so that his staff has repeatedly succeeded in uncovering it.

"Finally, the formation of a task force team by alerting 15 personnel who will monitor the accounts of sellers who are suspected of selling illegal cigarettes," he said.

Products offered through e-commerce, he said, are indeed products needed by the general public, ranging from electronic products, clothes, and others.

Meanwhile, the disclosure of cases of illegal cigarettes sold through the largest e-commerce, revealed 1,588 packages, which turned out to be illegal cigarettes in goods delivery services in Jepara.

The amount of evidence after it was calculated reached 1,362,800 cigarettes of the machine kretek cigarettes (SKM). Meanwhile, the value of the goods reached Rp1.7 billion so that the potential loss to the state that was saved was Rp1.17 billion.