Jakarta, 22-04-2022 – More than two years ago, since March 2020, Indonesia has been hit by a health crisis due to the presence of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19).Society is forced to face difficult times.The crush of health and the economy seems to be two things that cannot be separated, which of course also has an impact on national conditions.The government is trying hard to deal with this condition.Logistics assistance, medical equipment, medicines, vaccines, and various policies were provided to help the community out of the crisis.As a result, the current condition of Covid-19 in Indonesia is getting under control.So, is there any intervention of Customs in supporting this?Head of the Sub-directorate of Public Relations and Customs Counseling, Hatta Wardhana revealed that in the trade facilitator function, his party plays an active role in assisting the government in overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic.Various facilities, innovations, and ease of service are provided by Customs to support this.In a pandemic, the public's need for medical devices (alkes) has increased significantly.In addition to domestic production, people's needs for medical equipment are also met through imports.Based on Minister of Finance Regulation (PMK) No. 92/PMK.04/2021, the government through Customs and Excise provides an exemption from import duty on imports of goods needed to deal with Covid-19, so that domestic needs can be met and commodity prices stabilize again.“Through this incentive, the cost of imports will be reduced, so that it can be diverted to increase the supply of other needs.This is one of the efforts to accelerate the handling of the pandemic and normalize economic activities, which in turn has an impact on the recovery of the national economy," said Hatta.Customs and Excise also supports the government in the national vaccination program to achieve herd immunity in Indonesia.This is realized through the provision of import duty and/or excise exemption facilities, the waiver of PPN and PPnBM, as well as exemption from PPh 22, on the import of vaccines, which is further regulated in PMK number 188/PMK.04/2020.In 2022, the utilization of import facilities for handling Covid-19 is IDR893 billion, consisting of vaccine import facilities of IDR719 billion and medical equipment import facilities of IDR174 billion.Of the total realized value, imports of vaccines still dominate (81%), followed by medical equipment (19%) such as medicines, PCR test kits, oxygen cylinders, and respiratory therapy devices (oxygen concentrators, generators, and ventilators).Meanwhile, for the period November 2020 to March 2022, Customs and Excise succeeded in facilitating the import of vaccines as many as 506.60 million doses, consisting of 153.90 million bulk doses and 349.59 million finished doses.The import value reached IDR 47.40 trillion, and the value of exemption from import duty and PDRI was IDR 8.94 trillion.Quoted from the covid19.go.id page until March 31, 2022, 196.53 million people or 378.08 million doses have been vaccinated.In addition to fiscal facilities, Hatta said that his party also provides acceleration of import services for handling Covid-19 goods through the development of licensing applications.According to him, this application is able to provide services quickly and has been integrated with related institutions.“Customs and LNSW have built an Emergency Response Licensing portal, which is a one-stop service that makes it easy for facility users to apply for exemption from import duty.Furthermore, there is the BNPB Dashboard, a system that assists facility users in monitoring the progress of the BNPB Recommendation submission process which is a requirement for submitting medical equipment imports for handling Covid-19.Customs and Excise itself has built the Covid Response Application System, a web-based application for the issuance of the Minister of Finance Decree (SKMK) exemption from import duties and government-borne import duties (BM DTP)," explained Hatta.BM DTP is a payable import duty facility paid by the government on imports of goods and materials for production purposes, which are given to certain industrial sectors that are eligible and affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the provisions of which have been regulated in PMK number 134/PMK.010/2020.Then to determine the accuracy of providing facilities to the needs of the community, Customs and Excise together with the Directorate General.The Tax and Fiscal Policy Agency (BKF) has conducted a fiscal and non-fiscal stimulus survey for the national economic recovery program (PEN) in 2021. As a result, 64 percent of respondents stated that the biggest benefit of incentives was liquidity benefit, followed by 22 percent operational benefit, and 14 percent production benefit. .Meanwhile, in a survey based on the type of facility, as many as 89 percent of respondents stated that the most beneficial incentive was the import of medical devices.He hopes that the various facilities can be utilized more and more so that they can have a more positive impact on the community, both in handling health and economic recovery conditions due to Covid-19.“Understand all procedures and take advantage of the facilities!If you need further information, you can contact the Bravo Customs contact center at 1500225. Let's help the government together in this recovery effort!”Hatta said.Copyright of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise Head Office : Jl. Jendral A Yani (By Pass) Rawamangun, East Jakarta - 13230