JAKARTA – Trade Minister (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan has asked his staff at the Trade Ministry to determine the origin of cheap clothes sold in the market through research.
In fact, the man popularly known as Zulhas has asked his staff to bring in experts from universities to conduct detailed investigations, for example from the University of Indonesia.
“Mr. Kazan (head of the Trade Policy Agency) will try in detail. Yes, we will investigate comprehensively. What really happened. So that we cannot deny anything later. The research is really done together with experts. If necessary, ask the UI,” he said while speaking at the Central and Regional Trade Civil Servant Investigator Coordination Forum (PPNS) in Jakarta on Wednesday, August 21.
Zulhas also called for visits to large centers to ask questions about the origin of the goods sold there.
Markets, wholesale market centers are big. Tanah Abang, Manggadua, East Java, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, North Sumatra, Makassar. Research, asked. Where did the goods come from in that market? If that is the case, it will be revealed. Where did the goods come from,” he explained.
According to Zulhas, research is still needed into the conditions in this area, as the prices of clothes on the market are much lower, even below the tax price.
“Because there is a rule in the Ministry of Commerce that a tax of Rs 60,000 is levied on T-shirts imported from abroad. But in the market, the selling price is Rs 60,000 and that doesn’t make sense,” he said.
“Well, we will see what the problem really is. Where are the obstacles? Now we will learn all this. Because when goods come from outside, we can actually know that. It’s just that we don’t impose taxes, there is no rule,” he continued.
Zulhas did not deny that the domestic market continued to be flooded with illegal imported goods despite the government’s formation of a task force to monitor certain goods, implemented by the Import Commercial Procedure or the Task Force on Illegal Imports.
“Some time ago we formed an alternative task force. It just occurred to me that the task force will be stronger and more sophisticated if we focus it on fighting germs,” he said.
“It didn’t just go away. It shut down, it got stronger. That’s actually what happened,” he continued.
For your information, the Illegal Import Task Force has seized illegally imported goods at three different locations since its inception on July 19, 2024.
Most recently, the task force seized illegally imported goods worth Rp 46.18 billion entering Indonesia.
Minister of Commerce (Mendag) Zulkifli Hasan said that the items seized by the Task Force against Illegal Imports were of various types, ranging from laptops, photocopies, mobile phones, ready-made clothes, textile products and shoes to cosmetics.
“Based on the results of the action, the total value of the goods is estimated at Rp 46,188,205,400,” he said at a press conference and during the destruction of Bekasan Clothing (Balpres) at the Cikarang Customs Collection Point (TPP) in West Java on Tuesday, August 6.
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