New Trade Minister Admits Rice Import System Flaws
17 February 2014 18:02 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The newly appointed Trade Minister, Muhammad Lutfi, claimed that there were several flaws on rice import system that might have caused the illegal rice issue. He confirmed that the investigation has revealed some leads to fraudulent activities.
However, Minister Lutfi did not explain the flaws, citing only several notes on the weakness of the surveyor's rice fragments verification and Harmonized System (HS) code. "HS matter is not easy, field implementation is. It might also not be the system, but the surveyors. If the system really is flawed, we will fix it," said Lutfi.
Previously, the National Audit Board (BPK) suspected that the illegal rice import was due to the Trade Minister Regulation that provides a gap on the surveyor's rice fragments verification. It says that verification is merely optional for premium and medium quality rice.
BPK Chief Hadi Poernomo stated that the verification regulation is curcial as it determines whether the rice could be imported or not. It caused several parties to import premium quality rice such as that of Thai Hom Mali with lesser quality. "The verification should be obligatory," said Hadi.
ANGGA SUKMA WIJAYA
