n order to facilitate the ease of imports, now the clearance of imported goods is getting faster. There is no need to wait for the ship to dock at the port, even though the ship is still in the vast sea, the clearance process of imported goods can already be done. The hope is that once the ship is docked and dismantled, imported goods can be directly removed from the port area, without staying at all in the port warehouse area.
Customs reform from the import side is certainly good news for importers. So far, warehouse costs have been exorbitant because they are priced in cubic units per day or tons per day. Even at airports in kilograms per day. But now, there is an opportunity not to happen again for every Indonesian importer. Import flows are increasingly smooth. Goods quickly reach consumption points and profits for importers.
This Manifest Generation III policy is actually a customs document presentation (BC) 2.0 which is derivative of Perdirjen BC Number PER-44 / BC / 2011, namely Import Declaration of Goods (PIB). After the PIB is submitted to the system, if there are no problems or lack of documents, the imported goods will immediately get the status of Goods Expenditure Approval (SPPB). This green light of imported goods can be removed from the customs area.
Customs reform in the context of smooth flow of imports is certainly the antithesis of the spirit of controlling the current account deficit (CAD). When imports become very easy, the international trade barriers no longer exist. As a result, imported products will fill Indonesian store shelves.
From one side there is indeed an increase regarding the status of the logistic performance indicator (LPI) rating. The 2018 LPI score has indeed risen to number 46 with a score of 3.15 compared to two years ago at position 63. There has been an increase in rank to 17 levels. However Indonesia still needs certainty about regulations in the customs area, if in the near future manifest generation (MG) III is implemented, it has become the answer to recommendations for improvement of LPI 2020.
Next, the high cost of logistics currently occurring in Indonesia. Cost per container, documents, administration for customs and technical control. Then, customs agency fees, terminal handling and land transportation are still priced at 571 US dollars per container. Even though Malaysia costs US $ 525 per container. Even Singapore is US $ 475 per container.
130 US dollar export and import document costs in Jakarta and 170 US dollars in Surabaya. This is obtained from the World Bank’s Doing Business 2018 study. At the same time, the export or import duty per document in Singapore is 37 US dollars. Meanwhile, in Malaysia 45 US dollars. In addition, it takes 60 hours of document completion (inclaring) which is pre-clearance. Singapore is only two hours, Malaysia 10 hours, and Thailand 11 hours.
Simplifying the customs system primarily for the smooth flow of imports is indeed like two sides of a knife. Accelerated makes the process very short. That is, it will encourage importers to import again. In fact, Indonesia is currently being hit hard because of the imbalance in the export and import balance. CAD deficits are increasingly difficult to brake and the potential is increasing.
Before customs reform, the trade balance deficit until November 2018 was recorded at 2.05 billion US dollars. There has been a surplus in September 2018. However, the deficit returned in October 2018 amounted to 1.82 billion US dollars. The high trade balance deficit in the third quarter of last year was contributed by a service deficit of 2.22 billion US dollars.
Even though the second quarter was still a deficit of 1.86 billion US dollars. The reason is the increase in the deficit of transportation services such as sea freight services due to the increase in imports of goods. As a result, the CAD value in the third quarter of 2018 of 8.8 billion US dollars was 3.37 percent of GDP. This increased compared to the second quarter of 3.02 percent of GDP.
Selective
Implementation of customs documents (BC) 2.0 which are early PIB presentations in large CAD conditions should be selective. The government, however, must protect domestic-produced goods that can indeed be produced. If the importer acts blindly using MG-III for these items, the importer must be warned.
MG-III policies can be used, but for the category of capital goods such as for investments that are in installation and awaited foreign technicians. The longer the arrival of capital goods due to customs barriers, will add to the loss because foreign technicians are paid in units of hours in foreign currencies. Items like this have not been able to be made domestically. This is very relevant if given MG-III wisdom.
