TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Directorate General of Customs and Excise of the Finance Ministry confiscated millions of illegal cigarettes and one Shenzen cigarette roller machine. The illegal cigarettes and the roller machine were confiscated during a raid in Jakarta and Central Java.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said that the total number of illegal cigarettes reached up to 11,226,600, while the machine is capable of producing 1,500 cigarettes per minute.
Sri said on Friday, September 30, 2016, that the illegal cigarettes pose threats to health condition and job availability “because it affects the production capacity of legal cigarettes.”
One of the government's strategies to prevent illegal cigarette distribution is by increasing supervision measures. "Specifically [supervision] on illegal cigarette roller machine distribution," Sri said.
Sri added that the Directorate General of Customs and Excise will cooperate with the Trade Ministry, Industrial Ministry, and other institutions to record the use of cigarette roller machine.
Until today, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise has managed to solve 1,593 cases of illegal cigarette distribution.
In total, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise has confiscated 176.22 million illegal cigarettes valued at Rp. 135.55 billion.
"The highest number of violations was related to machine-produced cigarettes," Sri said.
VINDRY FLORENTIN
