Illegal textile imports are increasingly disturbing and are the cause of the decline in the textile and product industry national textiles (TPT) in recent years. International Trade Center (ITC) data shows a very large gap between Indonesia's import records based on Central Agency data Statistics (BPS) with data on China's exports to Indonesia based on data from General Custom Administration of China.
Based on this data, the General Chair of the Indonesian Fiber and Filament Yarn Producers Association (APSyFI) said that in 2022 the gap will reach USD 2.94 billion or the equivalent of Rp. 43 Trillion, where China's TPT exports to Indonesia for TPT (HS 50-63) reached USD 6.5 billion while the figure BPS TPT imports are only USD 3.55 billion. "If it is assumed that imports per container are worth Rp. 1.5 billion, then It is estimated that around 28,480 illegal TPT containers enter per year, or around 2,370 illegal containers per month," explained Redma. The number of illegal imports continues to rise every year. “Even though before some "The previous year was still below USD 2 billion," he added.
When compared with the value of people's TPT consumption in 2022 which is estimated to reach USD 16 billion, so the market share of illegally imported goods reaches 41%. “This means that 41% of TPT is consumed society is illegal," stressed Redma. “This is of course very detrimental because the goods are imported This illegal product does not pay import duties and taxes so it can be sold very cheaply on the domestic market and "Local products are unable to compete," he added.
Redma continued that this problem has been the cause of the decline in performance for years national textile industry. He explained that USD 6.5 billion is equivalent to 800 thousand tons or around 45% from the production capacity of small and medium-sized garment industries (IKM) that are oriented to the domestic market. “800 thousand tons per year, if done by SMEs, could absorb a workforce of around 2.4 million people, not to mention "if it is extended to the manufacture of fabric, thread, fiber and other supporting industries," explained Redma. "The economic multiplier effect is very large, apart from government income from the tax sector, also from electricity usage, BPJS payments and so on," he stressed.
For this reason, Redma asked the government to immediately act decisively both on the import side and on the import side in terms of distribution on the market. “This has been ignored for years, until now The condition of the national textile industry is chronic, several companies have closed, some have closed "turning off the machines means that many employees are affected by rationalization because utilization is down," he said.
Then Redma added that the same condition also occurred in several sectors. Based on the same data source, the export-import record gap between Indonesia and Singapore in 2022 reached USD 17 billion. "So the biggest gap is with Singapore, but if you break it down, Illegal imports from Singapore are dominated by electronic products, while illegal TPT is still dominated by China," explained Redma.