Imported Consumption Goods Restriction: Periodic Evaluations Scheduled

President Joko Widodo has instructed the ministers to limit the inundation of imported consumption goods, which will be later sold on social media platforms. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawai said the order was initially issued during the imported consumption goods handling meeting.

“The president has asked us to tighten monitoring and conduct periodic evaluations every three-month,” Sri Mulyani said.

She went on that the government has formed a task force on imported goods monitoring that comprised teams from the Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs, Trade Ministry, Communications and Information Technology Ministry, Industry Ministry, Cooperatives and Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Ministry, National Police, and Directorate General of Immigration. The government would change several procedures on the entering of imported goods.

The procedures that have been changed were, among others:

• The change of the goods traffic system from post border to border control toward certain products. The monitoring would apply to children’s toys, electronics, footwear, cosmetics, textiles, traditional medicine and health supplements, ready-to-wear clothes, and bags.
• The increasing monitoring of the general imports (consumption goods), delivery goods import, importation through the region, importation through e-commerce, importation through passengers’ goods/buying service, and addressing illegal and wholesale imports.