Thursday, 12 January 2012
Indonesian Ranking In LPI, Should Be One Of Reference For The RA Implementation
Regulated Agent Issue (for those who brought up the issue) seems always make controversion for all sides, from association to forwarding to the goods owners (generally manufacture). One way to tell the issue about Regulated Agent (RA) by conducting Round Table Discussion with a theme "How To Reduce Logistics Cost Of Air Cargo Transport At Soekarno Hatta International Airport" that was initiated by Indonesia Logistics And Forwarder Association of Soekarno Hatta International Airport (ALFI - Soetta) lead by Arman Yahya, on 13 December 2011.
Discussion was conducted using the facility from World Bank, Jakarta and moderator Henry Sandee, Senior Trade Specialist MDFTIC Unit - World Bank Indonesia. This discussion was attended by stakeholders who are associated with air cargo like Express Service (Asperindo), Electronic Manufactures (Gabel), Bonded Zone (APKB), and others.
World Bank probably want to give a facility and its time, because World Bank would like to know how bad the condition occurred by the RA implementation.
As known (and many have understood), early 2011 World Bank issue the report of "Connecting To Compete 2010 - The Logistics Performance Index (LPI) and Its Indicators". The report makes Indonesian Government and many sides that are associated with Indonesia logistics "shocked" for Indonesia in the 75th rank with the score of 2.76 (between 1 - 5) and 56.5 per cent for the highest performance. Far below "its ASEAN friends" such as Vietnam, Filipina, Thailand, Malaysia, (moreover) Singapore.
From "the mental load" logistic stakeholders could get a lesson, especially from the indicators like customs, infrastructure, international shipments, logistic quality and competence, tracking and tracing, timeliness.
Back to discussion, many facts revealed and complaints were delivered by each side about RA implementation, which never takes any "lesson" from LPI report, they are:
1. Which higher regulation for RA, is it ICAO Annex 17 or Law Number 1/2009 or Transportation Minister Regulation Number 9/2011?
2. From the government institution, Trade Ministry, Customs, Quarantine, Regulatory Commission of Business Competition (KPPU) would like to conduct some review on RA implementation that "crosses" the applied regulation.
3. Five associations that relate to the air cargo, through Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN), many times attempt to conduct open discussion with Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), but don't get serious response (even so no response)
4. Controversy on RA tariff - the increase from Rp. 60,-/kilo before RA implementation by DGCA to become at around Rp.350 - 450 /kilo + VAT 10%. Even before "the strike" aroused it reached Rp. 850,-/kilo + VAT 10%.
5. The comparison with other Asia countries, like Singapore at about $0.01 - $0.02/kilo, with the participation of companies around 200 companies. In Hong Kong, RA or RCA tariff is at around HK$ 0.50/kilo, with participation of 1,300 companies. Even in Thailand and Taiwan, they don't get inspection costs; all are borne by each government.
6. The process of long queue check on domestic cargoes, mainly, in an activity of manual loading - unloading activities. This can cause damage on / to the goods.
7. The fact in site, there found an RA company use Garuda's X-ray machine.
Next, the effects of RA tariff increase:
A. Against the short-haul flights (with the current RA basic tariff is Rp 450,-/kilo)
1. The Tariff of carrier from Jakarta - Semarang / Jogja / Solo increase for Rp 300,-/kilo, to become at around Rp 800 - Rp 1200,-/kilo
2. The tariff from Jakarta - Tanjung Karang (Lampung) and Palembang (South Sumatera) increased from Rp 800 - Rp 1300,-/kilo
B. Against the International short-haul route (with RA basic tariff at around Rp. 440 + VAT10% = Rp 484,-/kilo, to Rp 450 + VAT 10%= Rp 495,-/kilo)
1. From Jakarta - Singapore for about 1000 kilo is charged for US$0.30 - US$0.35/kilo (Rp 2,700 - Rp 3,150,-/kilo)
2. From Jakarta - Hong Kong for about 1000 kilo is charged for US$0.90 - US$1.15/kilo (Rp 8,100 - Rp 10,350/kilo)
* with the currency US$ 1= Rp 9,000,-
The proposed recommendations from ALFI Soetta in the discussion are:
1. Stop the implementation of RA for Domestic good delivery and International good export, wait until stakeholders issued agreement.
2. Air Cargo Security Screening issues included RA should be controlled by Government. Not run and operated by private sectors, who only wants to gain profits.
3. As the suggestion from KPPU, in order to add more RA companies, so as to get competitive price.
4. To ease the process to become RA company.
5. If DGCA is part of aviation world, it should refer to the standard of ICAO reference Annex 17 completely.
The brief recommendation as said by M. Kadrial, Head of Asperindo Central Board:
1. For the RA regulation, a small team that consists of stakeholders of air cargo is in the process of assessment together with The Ministry of Transportation (DGCA) in order to get "win-win solution".
2. Adjourning the RA for one year or until the decision made up to "relieve" all concerned parties.
3. During the adjournment, RA tariff is, temporarily, regulated by the Government (if possible back to the earliest tariff before RA).
4. Still during the adjournment, there's a proposal to The Ministry of Transportation to opening many more RA companies (theres an input to open up to 100 companies if it's possible to do so), so that there will be competitive tariffs, and each RA company will, then, improve and give the best services.(mar)
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