REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Trade Ministry has proposed that the import duty of premium rice should be increased following the importation of 32 container or 800 tons of rice from Vietnam sometime ago.

"We have been considering increasing the import duty," Trade Deputy Minister Bayu Krisnamurthi stated here on Friday.

The trade deputy minister said his ministry had submitted the proposal to the tariff team of the Ministry of Finance. This is because the raising of the import duty is not only the authority of the trade ministry alone.

The directorate general of customs and excise has earlier conducted an investigation on the importation of 800 tons of rice from Vietnam because it was suspected to have violated import permits.

The permits were issued for the importation of premium rice or rice of special category but the rice circulating in the market was that of the medium category.

The case was raised after the directorate general of customs and excise took the initiative to change the risk level of the import tariff headings 1006.30.40.00 and 1006.30.99.00 into high risk.

In the meantime, Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi said his ministry would soon hold a coordination meeting with the relevant institutions to discuss the problem.

"If we find mistake with the institution will fine it but if the system is weak,we will improve it," the minister noted.

The ministry of trade also proposed that the HS codes of rice should be changed following the suspicion in the abuse of import permits of rice from Vietnma.

Now, the HS codes of premium rice, medium rice and special rice are still the same, namely 1006.30.99.00, except for the ThaiHomali rice whose HS code is 1006.30.40.00.

The HS codes were part of the simplification and harmonization process of the HS codes in Indonesia which were put into effect in 2012 through a Finance Minister's regulation.

Last month, the customs authorities investigate the importation of 16.9 thousand tons of rice imported from Vietnam whose import permits were suspected to have been abused.

Director General of Customs and Excise Susiwijono Moegiarso stated that the import of the rice complied with the standing procedures and rules, the given import approvals, surveyor's reports and the automated reconciliation from the Indonesian National Single Window portal.

However, he did not rule out the possibility of the import permits being abused on the grounds that the permits used written approvals intended to import special rice instead of medium rice which can be imported by state logistics board (Bulog).

"This has happened as the HS codes of the two types of rice are the same: 1006.30.99.00. The Directorate General of Customs and Excise is investigating the alleged abuse of the import permits, including the audit of the surveyor's reports," he explained.

Under the Trade Minister's Regulation No.06/M-DAG/PER/2/2012, the import of rice, with headings 1006.30.99.00, can be done only by Bulog with approval from the ministry to stabilize price, cope with a state of emergency, provide subsidized rice for the poor, or address food scarcity issues.

Last year, the ministry issued a permit to import 16.9 thousand tons of special rice, consisting of 1,845 tons of the Basmati variety and 14,997 tons of the Japonica variety.

According to the Directorate General of Customs and Excise, the rice imports from Vietnam were shipped 83 times and involved 58 importers other than Bulog. The rice was imported via Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta and Belawan port in North Sumatra.

The rice imports were supported by import permits and surveyor's reports.

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