JAKARTA: The Tanjung Priok Customs and Excise Agency has foiled an attempt to illegally export five containers of rattan worth Rp 549.91 million (US$49,201) to China.
The agency’s head, Bahaduri Wijayanta said that the agency seized the containers during an inspection at the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta. The confiscated rattan was of a type forbidden for export by national law.
Bahaduri said the rattan was being exported by CV NNM and PT SSF and that suspects from the two companies were still at large. “Both the companies falsified their export permits,” he said.
He said that CV NNM, which tried to smuggle three containers of rattan, was granted permission to export coconut charcoal briquettes. PT SSF, which attempted to ship the other two containers, held a permit to export galvanised stanchions. “The perpetrators from the two companies will likely be charged with forging permits,” Bahaduri said.
The agency said that falsifying the documents was a breach of Law No 17/2006 on customs, punishable with two to eight years in prison and/or a fine ranging from Rp 100 million to Rp 5 billion.
