Logistic Association Asks for Incentive

Logistic Association Asks for Incentive

JAKARTA – The government of Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla was asked to give incentives in form of loan interest rate drop under 8% per year to commodity and container employers to boost revitalization program of logistic vehicles like trucks or trailers.

Indonesian Logistic and Forwarder Association (ALFI) Chairman, Yukki Nugrahawan Hanafi, said currently, there are 5.2 million commodity and container trucks and trailers supporting Indonesian logistic activities. “However, it still has low safety and security standards since currently, more than 60% of the vehicles have exceeded 10 years of usage,” he told Bisnis on Monday (1/5).

He explained vehicle revitalization program aims to support national logistic system (Sislognas). So far, logistic vehicle revitalization program is hampered by high loan interest rate to finance the logistic armada.

Currently, Yukki said averagely, foreign banking loan is far lower. If it is converted to rupiah, it is around 8% per year while Indonesian banking loan is around 12-14%.

Therefore, he said it is time for the government to determine banking policies to enable national shipping employers to compete with foreign shipping employers and to lower logistic cost from vehicle investment interest sector along with the implementation of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). “ALFI proposed three institutions namely Trade Ministry, Finance Ministry, and Transportation Ministry to arrange banking policies in giving lower banking interest rate under 8% per year to national logistic employers,” he explained.

Yukki added domestic logistic vehicle revitalization is really urgent since the competition in AEC needs speed, efficiency, and safety.

To compete in logistic activity during AEC, he also said it needs multi-mode integration by preparing integrated facilities for commodity delivery comprising container depot, consolidation warehouses, trucks, or train access at ports or airports serving export-import.

So far, he said, traffic gridlock to ports, airports, and container depots as well as long export-import stevedoring process lower the productivity of commodity trucks so it becomes one of the factors sparking high logistic cost.

Not Efficient

Based on ALFI’s study, Yukki said the average time needed to process an imported container in four main ports (Tanjung Priok, Tanjung Perak, Belawan, and Makassar) from sending trucks to ports until returning empty containers to depot is more than 15 hours. “This is surely not efficient,” he said.

He continued the role of PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) I-IV can coordinate all related institutions issuing shipping documents, export/import restriction, or other activities related with export and import agreement through port by holding one-stop service system.

The integrated one-stop service in processing documents facilitates inter-institution communication since half of vessel departure activity is conducted at weekend while the rest is conducted in Wednesday or Thursday so commodity and container truck traffic gridlock to ports often occurs toward weekend. “ALFI suggested for equal vessel departure, road access addition to main ports serving export-import and truck queue capacity addition,” he said.

Jakarta Organda’s Container Truck Association (Angsuspel) Chairman, Gemilang Tarigan, said sislognas has mandated integrated local and provincial logistic system through proper truck or trailer support.

Gemilang, who is also the declaratory of Indonesian Truck Employer Association (Aptrindo), urged for tax revoke for logistic transportation business so national transportation firms can also compete with similar employers from ASEAN during AEC implementation. “Truck or trailer tax burden still reaches 61%. Such burden is felt by employers and we want to lower it into 17.5%,” he said. (Bisnis Indonesia)