TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announces that firearms and ammunition imports in March saw a significant spike compared to February, amidst the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The agency reports that March’s imports that amount to US$187.1 million, which is a 7,3 percent increase compared to February’s US$2.5 million.

This also stomps over the import value of the same period last year that only saw firearms imports valued at US$2.1 million.

“This is a routine annual exercise for defense and security. It’s a coincidence that it was in March 2020,” said BPS head Suhariyanto in an online conference on Wednesday.

Other commodities that experienced a surge in month-to-month (mtm) import value include electronic machinery and equipment products at US$1.6 billion (totaling to US$422,8 million), plastic at US$161 million (totaling to US$733 million), steel and iron US$159.7 million (totaling to US$787.7 million), and lastly precious metals, jewelry, and gems with a total import value of US$246 million.

Firearms and ammunition remain to be the commodity with the most drastic increase even though it is still below the four other import commodities in terms of value. BPS also says Indonesia’s total import value as of March 2020 was US$13.35 billion.

FAJAR PEBRIANTO