Accelerate Production Growth, the Government Prepares Import Relaxation Policy for SMEs

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - The government is preparing a policy of import relaxation for small and medium industries (IKM) which is expected to facilitate national IKM players to obtain raw materials to support the increase in production capacity.

"For SMEs we have financial and administrative obstacles in importing directly, will be given the relaxation of trading system and ease of import of raw materials," said Director General of IKM Ministry of Industry, Gati Wibawaningsih in Jakarta, Saturday (30/12/2017).

Gati explains, to boost the competitiveness of national SMEs to be more competitive in the global arena, one of the strategic steps that currently need to be done quickly is the procurement of imported raw materials with the type and amount according to the needs and according to the payment capabilities of the perpetrators of IKM.

"We believe that these efforts can encourage economic growth and development of national industries, especially the SME sector which now amounts to 4.4 business units," explained Gati.

In addition, continued Gati, could spur investor interest to continue to increase investment in order to increase production capacity or create a new factory in Indonesia.

In practice, the government also makes it easy for SMEs to import through indenter or Bonded Logistics Center (PLB). Goods subject to import exclusions for SMEs, among others, capital goods commodities are not new to group 1B with certain amount restrictions.

Furthermore, imports of food and beverages excluding confectionery up to 500kg per shipment, traditional medicine and health supplements up to 500kg, maximum electronics 10 pieces, as well as passenger personal goods and crew means maximum of 10 pieces.

Previously, the fulfillment of raw material demand for IKM was done through a high risk import mechanism. "This happened because at that time, IKM was difficult to meet the administrative requirements and minimum capacity of imported raw materials," said Gati.
 
According to her, since the government launched the High Risk Import Control (PIBT) program in July 2017, managed to get positive achievements such as tax base, import duty, and import taxes that increased significantly. The average tax base increased by 39.4 percent per import document and import tax payment (import duty and PDRI) increased by 49.8 percent per import document.

"Not only that, the domestic industry also continues to increase production and sales volume, especially textiles and textile products reaching 25-30 percent, and electronics industries," Gati added.