Besides making procedures easy for the investors, the green lane facility will also cut short the waiting time.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The green lane facility to facilitate investors for importing machinery and tools as they enter the construction phase will reduce the time spent at ports, Customs and Excise Director General Haru Pambudi said.

The green lane facility to speed up the clearance process for imported machines and tools will be given to investors entering the construction phase of their projects upon the recommendation of the Capital Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM).

"Besides making procedures easy for the investors, the green lane facility will also cut short the waiting time," the director general told a press conference explaining the facility here on Monday.

According to Heru Pambudi, companies reaching the construction phase of their projects were most certain to import capital goods involving huge amounts. "If all of these have to pass through the red lane, they will end up taking a lot of time before being cleared," the director general said.

He said the directorate general has always accorded a similar treatment to all companies when it comes to the custom clearance process at ports.

It also helps prevent companies from committing any violation, particularly those undertaking such imports.

No wonder that authorities sometimes end up taking considerable time, up to nine months, to profile these companies, before allowing them to shift from red to green lane.

"If previously, a company needed three to five days to have its imported goods cleared, once it shifts to the fast green lane, the required license is issued in less than 30 minutes. This has become a new and attractive feature for Indonesia, and will help lure investors," he said.

It was reported earlier that the waiting period at the Tanjung Priok port, Jakarta, was pegged at 4.29 days per month, as of November 2015, an improvement from the national average of 4.7 days per month in June 2015.

The Head of Tanjung Priok Port Authority, Bay M Hasani, said on Thursday that the waiting time efficiency was due to the efficiency of pre-custom clearance, custom clearance, and post-custom clearance processes.

"This is a remarkable achievement," he added.

He explained that the process for pre-custom clearance at present was taking 2.3 days, down from 2.7 days, while custom clearance waiting time has been reduced from 0.5 days to 0.47 days, and post-process custom clearance now happens in 1.5 days to 1.45 days.

Bay said the biggest improvement to the extent of 60 to 70 percent in waiting time efficiency was seen in the pre-custom clearance process.

He added that the determining factor for pre-custom clearance, among others, was the considerable number of prohibitions or restrictions imposed, the speed of government agencies outside the port in issuing the prohibition policy, the research on prohibition by the Indonesia National Single Window (INSW) and the awareness among importers of the need to immediately submit the imported goods filing document.

Bay explained that as part of the efforts to reduce the waiting time, supporting facilities have been set up to address any bottlenecks in export and import licensing process.

In addition, the ministerial regulation had been revised for removing overdue stacked goods at the port in a period of three days now, down from the earlier seven day period.

"This effort would stimulate the speed of goods traffic from the port lines and will help review the tariff system regarding storage at port services," he said.

Thirdly, he said, there was a plan to build an integrated IT-based port monitoring system, which is used to trace the movement of ships and goods at the port.

Fourthly, one needed to optimize integrated quarantine and customs checkpoints.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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