April 13, 2025 | 05:17 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Economist Khudori of the Indonesian Political Economy Association (AEPI) said the interpretation of President Prabowo Subianto's instruction to remove import quotas as a means to open the floodgates of imports is less precise. According to him, the President's statement should be read as an order to protect domestic producers without having to use quota instruments.
"The argument that domestic food prices are high, which then becomes an excuse to facilitate imports, must be carefully considered. Because behind that excuse, the lives of millions of farmers, breeders, planters, and fishermen are at stake," said Khudori in a written statement on Thursday, April 10, 2025.
The President's instruction, according to Khudori, should be interpreted by his cabinet aides as the need to find instruments other than quotas to protect domestic producers, including ensuring food sufficiency. He explained that the quota system is opaque. This system often becomes a favorite arena for favoritism of certain groups at the expense of others.
Tempo has reported on the issue of the garlic import quota given to certain groups suspected of abusing their power. Meanwhile, importers and businesses that have been dealing in garlic for decades have not received a share in the last 2-3 years.
In the beef commodity, Tempo reported allegations of distribution monopolies resulting in high prices. Hoarding practices also occur in the fish commodity. Tempo reported that importers are allegedly charged for issuing Import Approval Letters (SPI).
Khudori added that the quota system fosters corruption. He cited Nyoman Dhamantra, a former member of the House of Representatives from PDIP, who was implicated in the garlic import quota processing in 2019. The Chairman of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) Irman Gusman was also caught receiving a bribe of Rp 100 million in determining the sugar import quota in 2016. In addition, the PKS President Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq was also nabbed in a bribe for beef import in 2013.
"Of the three corruption cases related to food import quotas, this practice involves three parties: entrepreneurs as bribe givers, bureaucrats as issuers of import permits or quotas, and politicians who trade influence. Therefore, the corruption cases in food imports are rooted in the quota-based import control policy," said this graduate of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jember.
Khudori stated that the quota regime is controlled through SPI, the authority of which lies in the Ministry of Trade. For horticultural products such as garlic, importers must first obtain a Recommendation for Horticultural Product Imports (RIPH) from the technical ministry, in this case, the Ministry of Agriculture.
As a consequence, Khudori said, in order to obtain quotas, one must pay a certain price. In the case of garlic imports, the Ombudsman found in 2023 a request for a fee of Rp4,000 to Rp5,000 per kilogram for SPI, up from a fee of Rp1,500 per kilogram in 2020. This year, the requested fee is allegedly increased to Rp7,000 to Rp8,000 per kilogram.
"In short, the opaque determination of import quota recipients opens the door to corruption, illicit transactions, and favoritism. Import quotas are also only concentrated among a handful of companies," said the author of the book 'Bulog and the Politics of Food Distribution'.
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