Jakarta. Indonesia has once again waged war on illegal imports, with one newly appointed senior deputy minister saying that more efforts should be put into examining the money transfers.

The Prabowo Subianto administration wants to curb illegal imports with hopes that it can bring economic growth up to 6% next year and eventually 8% by 2029 or the end of the presidential term. Dradjad Hari Wibowo, the deputy coordinating minister for economic affairs, claimed on Thursday that the government already “found out who was behind the illegal imports”.

“We already know the perpetrators. All that remains is how we can bring imports to order. I have proposed that we should follow the money. Wherever illegality exists, we must follow the money,” Dradjad — who had only spent a week in the cabinet — told the recent Investor Daily Summit in Jakarta.

“We shall have more effective enforcement in the order.”

He did not go into detail on what the government had up its sleeve. Dradjad, who was on Prabowo’s campaign team as an economist, later claimed that he knew the “tricks” to sniff out illegal importers. 

“Illegal import has been deeply entrenched here. A ministry official once told me that they could face physical threats when they were about to take measures against them,” Dradjad said, without naming his source. 

He admitted to being concerned by the uncontrollable arrivals of used clothing that usually enter the country in bales. Authorities reported that a bulk of the secondhand shirts and dresses enter the country via Malaysia, with the deliveries bound for the domestic thrift market. 

Just a few weeks ago, customs authorities seized thousands of bales of used clothing, which were worth at least Rp 8 billion ($447,077).

It was also around that time when Prabowo gathered his ministers to save the textile industry, which employs around 4 million workers and records $12 billion in annual exports, according to a government estimate. This labor-intensive sector has been facing mass layoffs, part of which is due to its inability to compete with cheap imports.

“[The president] has ordered Customs Head [Djaka Budhi Utama] to immediately take care of the bales entering our country. They have really harmed our garment producers,” chief economic minister Airlangga Hartarto said.

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