Klojen (malangkota.go.id) – The circulation of illegal cigarettes, which is one of the factors causing state losses, is a challenge for various parties in Malang City. This is because Malang Raya is one of the producing areas for the practice of circulating illegal cigarettes. This was conveyed by the First Expert Customs and Excise Inspector of the Malang Regional Office (Kanwil), Beny Setyawan, at the Gempur Cigarette Illegal Socialization event at the Malang City Police Headquarters, Wednesday (25/9/2024).
Illegal cigarettes are cigarettes that are circulated in the community, but do not follow the regulations in force in the territory of Indonesia. There are four groups that are included in illegal cigarettes. First, plain cigarettes without excise stamps, second, cigarettes with used excise stamps that have been used before, third, those that are misused, and finally, fake excise stamps. One example is when there are cigarettes from company A using excise stamps from company B which are cheaper. These four practices clearly violate the rules and cause state losses.
Beny explained that this socialization was carried out as part of efforts to strengthen excise supervision, and aims to increase public awareness and strengthen compliance of stakeholders in combating the circulation of illegal cigarettes which was carried out through contributions of support from the Malang City tobacco excise revenue sharing fund (DBHCT).
"This fund is actually from Malang which is also deposited to the Central Government in the form of excise, and returned to the region. And thank God, this year Malang City managed to get DBH CHT of Rp49 billion, and used for activities such as socialization, law enforcement, and so on," he said.
Beny further said that Malang City should be proud, because of the trillions of APBN received by the country, as much as Rp27 trillion is the result contributed by excise from Malang Raya. This value even beats the contribution of two other big cities in Indonesia, namely Surabaya City and Semarang City. According to Beny, this is none other than because of the synergy and good collaboration carried out by the community, government and law enforcement.
Therefore, he also reminded the participants of the socialization, most of whom were law enforcement officers and members of the public, to play an active role in combating illegal cigarette practices, especially in Malang City, by reporting the practices found to the Director General of Customs and Excise, Malang Regional Office.
"If anyone finds or takes action against cigarettes suspected of being illegal, we ask for your cooperation to contact us, either at the Malang Customs Office or at the Regional Customs Office in Arjosari. We are always ready 24/7," he concluded. (iu/yon)
