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Dairy Farmers Demand Imported Milk Charged 20% Import Tax
SURABAYA (SI)– Dairy farmers in East Java demand the government to charge 20% import tax for imported milk. This is to maintain the production capacity of local milk from the overflow of imported milk since import tax was omitted in 2003. “20% import tax on imported milk could also increase milk production of local dairy farmers,” said Chairman of the Organization and Human Resources Division of the Association of Indonesian Milk Cooperatives (GKSI) for East Java, Sulistiyanto after an audience with the Provincial Parliament (DPRD Tingkat I) in Surabaya yesterday.
Sulistiyanto said before 2003 the government had charged 5% import tax on imported milk. That policy was quite good and it was beneficial for local dairy farmers. But after that came out a new policy which pushed down the import tax to 0%. “If the government fails to act quickly, in the future, milk producers such as Nestle and others will lose to the many imported products coming into Indonesia. If this happens, Indonesian dairy farmers will go out of business,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the National Milk Board (DSN), Masngud Imam Santoso, perceives that the government’s policy through the Ministry of Finance’s Directive (Permenkeu) No 145/2008 and Permenkeu No 119/2009 is damaging for diary farmers. “In Permenkeu No 145 it said that in accordance with World Trade Organization (WTO) regulations, the import tax for milk will be zero percent in 2017.
But in February this year came out Permenkeu No 119 which regulated import tax for milk to be zero percent. Both directives are weakening our dairy farms,” he said.
On the other hand, Imam rejects the notion of lowering the basic price of fresh milk to 300 rupiahs per liter, which is planned to be carried out today. Lowering the price will affect the welfare of farmers in the future and will cause decrease in the production capacity of dairy farmers. (ant)
Source : Sindo