A Hotbed of Corruption and Extortion from a Long Time Until Frozen by Suharto

Recently, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise, which is under the Ministry of Finance, has been the target of public criticism. Since the time when the case emerged at the Directorate General of Taxes, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise has also been affected.

The luxurious lifestyle of Customs officials and their families is currently in the public spotlight. Starting from the Head of Yogyakarta Customs and Excise Eko Darmanto, the Head of Makassar Customs Andhi Pramono was summoned by the KPK to provide clarification regarding his fantastic assets.

Recently, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD also mentioned that there were suspicious transactions of up to IDR 300 trillion, which were dominated by accounts belonging to Tax and Customs officers.

The Customs and Excise Institution was again flooded with criticism after one of its employees named Widy Heriyanto insulted taxpayers as babu on Twitter social media.

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Customs Freezes Soeharto

Launching from the official website of the Finance Ministry’s Media Finance (MK+), the Customs and Excise institution was once frozen during the New Order government because it became a hotbed of corruption which was considered very severe.

The President of the Republic of Indonesia, which at that time was occupied by President Soeharto, was very angry with the corrupt practices that were very rife in Customs and Excise. Even though it was not disbanded, President Soeharto decided to freeze the institution.

During the New Order era, the practice of corruption, especially extortion, was still very close to Customs officials. They carry out various strategies with import-export businessmen.

There are many businessmen who commit acts of corruption in the form of bribing Customs officials to smooth out smuggling. This practice is often referred to as “Peace Money”.

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On June 6, 1968, Minister of Finance Ali Wardhana acknowledged that there had been a lot of irregularities and corruption at Customs.

Smuggling and fraudulent practices at Customs and Excise occurred due to a collusion between Customs and smuggler importers.

When Ali Wardhana made a visit to the Customs and Excise office located in Tanjung Priok in May 1971, he saw the officers themselves relaxing. He also received news of the smuggling of hundreds of thousands of famous brand batteries.

This finding made Ali Wardhana inflamed. He changed the position of Customs and Excise by transferring echelon II officials between echelon I units. In 1978, the Director of Customs and Excise was replaced by officials from echelon units several times.

But in fact this method cannot improve the performance of Customs and Excise. The form of fraud and also smuggling is still happening.

Foreclosed

Based on the President’s instructions, it was then decided to entrust part of the authority of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise to PT Surveyor Indonesia in collaboration with a private company from Switzerland called Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS).

This means that many Customs and Excise employees are forced to be laid off because their jobs have been taken over by PT Surveyor Indonesia.

This authority was then returned to the Directorate General of Customs and Excise after Law Number 10 of 1995 related to Customs which became effective on April 1, 1997.

Then, it was revised by Law Number 17 of 2006 concerning changes to the Customs Law.

The law also gives wider authority to the Directorate General of Customs and Excise in accordance with the scope of duties and functions it holds.

With the enactment of this law, the products of colonial law are no longer valid.

Likewise with the enactment of Law Number 11 of 1995 concerning Excise which was subsequently amended by Law Number 39 of 2007 to replace the five previous excise ordinances.

Contributors : Syifa Khoerunnisa