REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Director General for Small Islands and Coastal Areas of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Sudirman Saat suspects 'behind the door deals' in the import of salt into the country.

"Indonesia has once again become self-sufficient in salt production. Therefore, we have stopped the import of consumer salt this year," the director general stated here on Friday.

He asserted that Indonesia was now able to meet its domestic needs of consumer salt. Indonesia reported an overstock of one million tons in 2012 and 1.5 million tons in 2013.

"But, we still allowed the import of salt for industrial needs," the director general explained.

Indonesia's salt import for industrial purposes in 2013 reached 255 thousand tons, and in 2014, it stands at 135 thousand tons.

The problem is that the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Indonesia had not yet reached an agreement on the import of salt that was classified for industrial use.

If the salt is imported as industry salt, it will receive different treatment because the import duty on consumer salt is zero percent.

So far, salt is imported as consumer salt.

"When the president and vice president declared salt self-sufficiency, some people still continued to engage in behind the door deals," she stressed.

In the meantime, Hosnan Achmadi, the chairman of Pamekasan Regional Legislative Assembly (DPRD)'s Commission B has urged the central government to stop the import of salt, which is detrimental to the salt farmers.

"Normally, when the production is small, the selling price should be higher, but it was ironical that although the production last year was small, the selling price was low," Hosnan emphasized here on Sunday.

According to him, the low selling price of salt was the result of excessive salt imports.

"The highest retail price by the Government was set at Rp750 per kg, but in reality, the selling price of salt last year was between Rp400 and Rp500 per kg," Hosnan explained.

He noted that the domestic salt farmers are still relying on government intervention to advance their businesses by re-evaluating its policy on salt import.

"If the government continues to import salt, its efforts to advance the local salt industry will go in vain," he pointed out.

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