JAKARTA: The government has proposed turning illegally imported goods into industrial fuel for factories due to budget constraints that prevent it from destroying the contraband, but the idea has drawn a sharp rebuke from critics and industrialists, who say such a move could be burdensome rather than beneficial.

Trade Ministry domestic trade tirector General Moga Simatupang came up with the idea of using the confiscated products, including textiles and machinery, as a source of energy for factories to save the government the cost of having to move and destroy them.

Since its establishment last month, the illegal-goods task force has seized 106.2 billion rupiah or about US$6.8mil worth of illegally imported goods, including thousands of tools, such as grinders and drills, electronic devices, plastic products, furniture, textiles, footwear, alcoholic beverages and even a car washing machine valued at five billion rupiah.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post, Fajar Budiono, secretary-general of the Indonesian Olefin, Aromatic and Plastic Industry Association (Inaplas), opposed the idea, calling it impracticable for the local plastics industry.

While plastics could technically be converted into fuel through a process called pyrolysis, it was not a common practice within the domestic plastics industry, Fajar explained.

“This is a rather strange and unclear idea. Few in our industry have the machinery required to convert plastics into energy,” he said last Thursday.

Moreover, receiving the goods, even for free, could burden businesses due to the high costs associated with separating plastic from other materials, making it difficult to repurpose these goods.

“No, if we are told to eradicate these goods. It will cost us more money,” he said. “Besides, they have to chop it up before giving it to the industry, in order to prevent it from being misused, such as being resold.”

Moga, who was still serving as the ministry’s consumer protection and trade order director general when he floated the idea earlier this month, did not specify which industrial sectors would be eligible for the transfer of the seized contraband.

It would cost the government money to cut up the goods confiscated by its own task force, he said on Aug 6.

According to Moga, the imported used clothing could help industries as a feedstock for fuel.

Industry Ministry spokesman Febri Hendri Antoni Arif approved of the task force’s plan for a “transparent provision” of the textile goods as fuel for industrial operations, Kompas reported on Aug 11.

Danang Girindrawardana, executive director of the Indonesian Textile Association, said the upstream textile industry was indeed in need of fuel but textiles had never been considered a viable option.

“Our industry typically relies on gas and coal for fuel. Replacing these with textiles would require special technology, and we’re unsure how much product would be needed or the amount of heat that could be generated,” Danang said last Thursday.

Around 10 tonnes of seized textiles could only supply energy for about a month if the industry would like to try it, according to his calculations, but this only raised questions about the sustainability of the idea.

On the other hand, he suggested that some of the illegal goods, like fabrics, could be used as raw material for small industries, with strict controls.

 - ANN