Jakarta. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani and senior officials from the Ministry of Finance visited the Soekarno-Hatta Airport Customs Office in Tangerang on Saturday to conduct a coordination meeting in response to several viral cases of complaints regarding the Directorate General of Customs and Excise.

"Last night (Saturday, April 27), along with senior officials from the Customs and Excise Office, I held discussions at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport Customs Office regarding various issues raised by the public concerning customs services," said Sri Mulyani on her personal Instagram account, @smindrawati, on Sunday.

Sri mentioned that they had received reports regarding the handling of viral cases. One of the recent cases involved a man who protested on social media after being charged Rp 30 million ($1,846) in customs duties for a pair of Adidas F50 Adizero football shoes he purchased for Rp 10 million.

Another case involved Indonesian Youtuber, Medy Renaldy. The well-known toy company Robosen chose Medy Renaldy to review their latest toy product, Megatron, from the Transformers franchise. However, the package sent by Robosen to Medy Renaldy was held at customs on Monday, April 15. Eventually, Medy Renaldy received the package, but it was in poor condition.

"These two cases are similar, involving complaints about customs duties and taxes. In both cases, there were indications that the prices reported by the courier service companies were lower than the actual prices (under-invoicing)," said the Finance Minister.

Sri Mulyani added that these issues have been resolved as the customs duties and taxes have been paid, and the recipients have received the goods.

Another viral case involved the shipment of 20 keyboards for Special Needs Schools (SLB). The imported goods, totaling 20 units, were initially reported as courier goods by the courier service company on December 18, 2022. However, because the concerned party did not continue the processing without any explanation, the goods were declared as unclaimed goods.

"It was later discovered that the shipment was actually a donation. Therefore, Customs will assist with the mechanism of fiscal exemption in the name of the related education department," said Sri Mulyani.

The Finance Ministry has urged Customs to continue improving their services and to proactively educate the public regarding the policies of various ministries/agencies that Customs must implement, namely as border protection, revenue collector, trade facilitator, and industrial assistance.

"I have also requested Customs to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to ensure that services and problem-solving in the field can be done quickly, accurately, and effectively, thus providing certainty to the public," she added.

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