REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Minister of Trade, Muhammad Luthfi admitted his guilt in importing Vietnamese rice to Indonesia. Based on a letter from the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), there are several issues that must be clarified. One of them, government must clear up the HS code.

"It's our mistakes (Ministry of Trade)," Luthfi said recently as reported by Nora Azizah.

HS code for premium and medium rice, also medium and special rice are still same in Indonesia. It is written in Finance Ministrial Regulation in 2012.

HS separation can only be carried out within a period of five years. Government must also form a committee. Luthfi said that it could not be suddenly changed. Ministry of Trade is still coordinating with Ministry of Finance. They will propose a system based on the advice given by BPK to fix it.

The second problem is in the surveyor. Government is asked to pay its internal surveyors to avoid this confusion. To make an independent surveyor, Ministry of Trade must send its proposal to Ministry of Finance to be discussed in state budget.

Previously, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Hatta Rajasa asked Ministry of Agriculture to investigate rice import of 16,900 tones of illegal rice from Vietnam. He said some importers were suspected to misuse rice import license. Ministry of Trade issued the import license based on recommendation from Ministry of Agriculture. As the matter of fact, the Vietnamese rice in Indonesian market is in medium quality instead of premium quality.

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