Definition of Customs: History, Policies, Duties, and Functions

Definition of Customs and Excise – An institution from trade business people to the general public certainly knows that in international trade or export or import trade of goods there will definitely be customs or the agency that regulates it is called customs.

These customs have two different terms and have separate meanings. Duty is a levy imposed by the government on goods exported or imported. Then, excise is a levy made by the government on goods that have certain characteristics stipulated by laws and regulations.

Very many people are related to this customs but do not know about the information. In order to get to know more about what customs is, you can refer to this article Sinaumeds. In this article, we will discuss the definition of customs and their functions.

What Is Customs?

Customs and Excise is a fairly familiar term for an agency that deals with export and import, even for the general public the term customs often appears in media coverage.

Even so, customs can be interpreted as levies made by the government on goods that are exported or imported as well as goods that have special characteristics.

Meanwhile, the agency that regulates customs is called customs. Customs has the function of overseeing the traffic of goods entering or leaving the customs area and collecting duties.

This customs agency is one of the institutions that must exist in every country, including Indonesia. In addition, customs can be regarded as a conventional institution such as courts, police and military. It is this institution that has definitely existed since the state was founded.

Definition of Customs According to Experts

The following is the definition of customs from several experts.

1. Big Indonesian Dictionary

According to KBBI, customs is defined separately. This is because duties are taxes, fees and charges, while excise is something related to taxes. From that explanation, it can be concluded that customs is a cost or fee related to taxes.

2. According to the Directorate General of Customs and Excise

According to the Directorate General of Customs and Excise, customs have existed since the Dutch colonialism, the Dutch called customs douane. During the Majapahit era, this custom was widely used by traders. Because there are many new items from outside the area.

In addition, these customs are incorporated in the customs sector. Customs is the parent of customs and excise. In this modern era, customs is more popularly known as custom. Excise objects are very diverse, such as cigars, liquor, and others. Each country has its own rules regarding customs.

These items are subject to high fees because they are intended to prevent entry and are easily purchased by Indonesians at random. In addition, if the community is given very cheap fees, there will be many losses in the community itself.

Sometimes many people smuggle these goods, without knowing the bad consequences. Therefore, customs has an important role in collecting the cost of any goods.

3. According to Law Number 17 of 2006 Customs

Customs duty is a country’s levy imposed on every export or import goods. Meanwhile, excise is a state levy imposed on goods that have characteristics or criteria that have been determined by law.

This characteristic is meant for a number of reasons, such as consumption that needs to be controlled, circulation to be monitored for its existence, negative effects on the use of goods from the public, users of luxury goods are also exposed to high excise costs. Therefore, you should first think about the items you want to bring. This happened due to the lack of socialization from customs officials regarding the criteria for goods subject to low or high tax.

4. According to the Ministry of Finance

Just like the above, the definition of customs is a state levy by paying according to transaction needs which will later return to us. Taxes can also be used to carry out public infrastructure development. Then, import duties are also referred to as levies given to goods aimed at protecting similar goods on the domestic market.

History of Customs

The history of this custom has existed long before the arrival of the Dutch colonialists, to be more precise, it has existed since the kingdom era. However, there is no strong evidence of its existence.

When the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) entered, documentaries about this institution began to be seen.

Then, during the Dutch East Indies period, customs officers were called dovane. Meanwhile, the official name of the institution that existed at that time was De Dienst der Invoer en Uivoerrenchten en Accijnzen (I. U & A), if translated reads “Department of Import and Export Customs and Excise”.

There were also tasks that came from this institution during the Dutch East Indies era, namely collecting import and export duties and excise. Meanwhile, during the tenure of Nippon/Japan, this institution underwent a change of duties, in which matters of import and export duties were abolished, only dealing with excise collection.

After Indonesia’s independence, this institution was created again on October 1, 1946 under the name Customs and Excise Office. For this reason, October 1 is sometimes referred to as the birthday of customs.

Then, based on Government Regulation Number 51 of 1948, this institution underwent a name change to the Bureau of Customs and Excise from 1948 to 1965. After 1965, this institution underwent another name change and has survived to this day, known as the Directorate General of Customs and Excise. Excise.

Customs Policy

Quoted from Ceratiti.com , customs policies are divided into two, namely export policies and excise policies.

Export Field

  1. Law No. 17 of 2006 concerning Amendments to Law No. 16 of 1995 concerning Customs.
  2. Republic of Indonesia Government Regulation stipulated in Number 55 of 2008 regarding the imposition of Export Duty on Export Goods
  3. Regulation of the Minister of Finance, stipulated in Number 145/PMK.04/2007 jo. PMK No. 148/PMK.04/2011 jo. PMK No. 145/PMK.04/2014 concerning Customs Provisions in the Export Sector.
  4. Regulation of the Minister of Finance, stipulated in Number 214/PMK.04/2008 jo. PMK No. 146/PMK.04/2014 jo. PMK No. 86/PMK.04/2016 regarding the collection of export duties.
  5. Regulation of the Minister of Finance, stipulated in Number 224/PMK.04/2015 concerning Supervision of Imported or Exported Goods, Prohibited and/or Restricted Goods.
  6. Regulation of the Minister of Finance, stipulated in Number 13/PMK.010/2017 concerning Stipulation of Export Goods Subject to Export Duty and Export Duty Tariff.
  7. Regulation of the Director General of Customs and Excise, stipulated in Number PER-32/BC/2014 jo. PER-29/BC/2016 concerning Customs Administration in the Export Sector.
  8. Regulation of the Director General of Customs and Excise, stipulated in Number P-41/BC/2008 jo. P-07/BC/2009 jo. PER-18/BC/2012 jo. PER-34/BC/2016 regarding Export Customs Notification.

Excise Field

  1. The Law of the Republic of Indonesia stipulated in Number 11 of 1995 concerning Excise which has been amended by the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 39 of 2007 concerning the Amendment.
  2. Regulation of the Minister of Finance (PMK) stipulated in No. 62/PMK.011/2010 concerning Excise Tariffs on Alcohol Products, Beverages Containing Ethyl Alcohol, and Concentrates Containing Alcohol;
  3. Regulation of the Minister of Finance stipulated in Number 181/PMK.011/2009 concerning Excise Tariffs for tobacco products;
  4. Regulation of the Director General of Customs and Excise stipulated in Number: P-43/BC/2009 concerning Procedures for Determining Excise Tariffs for Tobacco Products;
  5. Regulation of the Director General of Customs and Excise stipulated in Number: P – 22/BC/2010 concerning Procedures for Collection of Excise on Ethyl Alcohol, Beverages Containing Ethyl Alcohol, and Concentrates Containing Ethyl Alcohol.

Main Duties of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise

The Directorate General of Customs and Excise is responsible for and is under the Minister of Finance and led by the Director General of Customs and Excise.

The Directorate General of Customs and Excise has the task of carrying out a formulation and implementation of policies in the field of supervision, law enforcement, services and carrying out an optimization of state revenue in the field of customs and excise in accordance with statutory provisions.

Functions of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise

This institution has a very important function for the state. The following are the main functions quoted from the website of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise:

  1. Increase the growth of the domestic industry through the implementation of facilities in the field of customs and excise that are right on target.
  2. Realizing a conducive business and investment climate, thereby facilitating the logistics of export and import shipments through simplification of customs and excise procedures and the implementation of a reliable risk management system.
  3. Protect the public, domestic industry and national interests through supervision and prevent the entry of imported goods and the release of export goods which can have negative and dangerous impacts which are limited by regulations from this institution.
  4. Supervising import and export activities and activities in the field of customs and excise is very effective and efficient through the implementation of a reliable risk management system, intelligence and strong investigations, as well as strict enforcement and appropriate customs and excise audits.
  5. Restricting, supervising, or controlling the production, circulation and consumption of certain goods can have properties and characteristics that can endanger health, the environment, public order and all security through excise instruments that can pay attention to aspects of justice and balance.
  6. Optimizing revenue from the state in the form of import duties, export duties and excise to support national development.

Realization of Customs Revenue

Quoted from online-pajak.com , the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemenkeu-RI) announced that until 1 October 2019 state revenue from customs was recorded at IDR 125.22 trillion. This achievement of customs revenue reached 64.5% of the 2018 customs revenue target, which was IDR 194.1 trillion.

If broken down into customs receipts, this consists of excise receipts of IDR 91.39 trillion. A product enters the country, so the cost of import duties is Rp. 28.59 trillion, while the revenue from export duties is Rp. 5.24 trillion.

In terms of achievement with the set target, excise revenue was recorded at 58.8% of the set target. Meanwhile, revenue from import duties was recorded at 80.08% of the target. Meanwhile, revenue from export duties actually exceeded the target, reaching 174.56% of the target set.

Quoting kontan.co.id , Head of Communication and Publications Subdirectorate of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise Deni Surjantoro said that there was an increase in international trade and improvements in various customs policies (import control was quite risky and excise control) played an important role in influencing an increase in customs revenue in This year.

Synergy of the Directorate General of Customs and the Directorate General of Taxes

As two institutions under the auspices of the Indonesian Ministry of Finance, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise and the Directorate General of Taxes continue to collaborate to provide the best service for the community to increase state revenue.

For this year, the cooperation between the Directorate General of Customs and Excise and the Directorate General of Taxes can be seen in the opening of three main programs aimed at facilitating business activities or investment in Indonesia. The following are the three programs

  • Joint endorsements.
  • Joint assistance
  • Carry out the implementation of the Free trade zone in the Batam area.

Previously, these business actors had to take care of documents separately and of course this made the process inefficient.

If in the past these business actors had to visit the regional Customs and Excise Offices separately to obtain endorsements, the current process is very short and has been integrated electronically.

The program is obliged to oversee taxes that carry out an export or import activity as well as taxpayers who are in the area.

Closing

As previously explained, customs must exist in every country, including Indonesia. The existence of customs in each country is not without reason because with the presence of this customs agency, the country can get income, so that it can increase foreign exchange reserves.

The customs agency itself is also known as customs. From the discussion above, it can be said that actually since the Dutch era, customs have existed. There have been many name changes, and the last name used by the customs agency is the Directorate General of Customs and Excise.

Thanks to the existence of a customs and excise agency, the Indonesian state can get income from goods purchased or brought from abroad. Therefore, when you go from abroad and then bring goods or souvenirs, you must be prepared to pay customs duties.

Thus the discussion regarding the meaning of customs, the history of customs, to the functions of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise. Hopefully all the discussion in this article can be useful as well as add to your insight.

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