Indonesia steps up crackdown on thrift trade in bid to revive ailing textile industry
A new regulation aims to blacklist importers caught smuggling in second-hand clothing, sending a chill through thrift markets
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa announced plans to issue a new regulation reinforcing a 2022 Trade Ministry ban on used clothing imports. The measure would allow authorities to blacklist importers caught smuggling in used apparel.
“We know who the players are. Anyone who has ever been involved in used-clothes smuggling will be blacklisted, they won’t be allowed to import goods again,” Purbaya told reporters on October 22.
Under existing rules, offenders face jail time and confiscation of their stock, but Purbaya said punishing smugglers through imprisonment and destroying their seized goods had been costly and counterproductive.
“So [the state] lost money, just paying for the cost of destroying the goods, plus feeding the [perpetrators] in prison,” he said.
On August 14, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise said it had carried out 2,584 seizures of illegally imported clothes and bags since January 2024, with an estimated value of 49.44 billion rupiah (US$2.9 million).