Jakarta – None of the usual whirring of machinery, clanging of metal or shouts of workers sounded Monday at Tanjung Priok Port.
About 12,000 truck drivers from 151 transportation companies went on strike, refusing to deliver goods for export or pick up ones unloaded from destinations around the world.
Truck owners and drivers said they were fed up by a VAT charge eating into their income, and which has caused several companies to close. "We have suffered for a long time," a truck owner, Lumumba Panjaitan, told The Jakarta Post.
Panjaitan, whose usual delivery route is Tangerang, said the Rp 900,000 (US$98.5) he received for one order was slashed by various expenses.
"Half of the payment goes to the driver, and 30 percent goes for vehicle maintenance, oil and fuel. With the 10 percent for value-added tax, it's killing us," he said.
The Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) has repeatedly protested the policy on the 10 percent value-added tax, which took effect one year before the stipulation issued in 2003.
"Since the regulation was retroactive, the companies had to pay one full year of extra taxes... The policy has shut down 21 of us," said Organda director Murphy Hutagalung. Last year's fuel price hikes have compounded their problems.
The strike, which began at noon, brought all activities to a halt at the port, which accounts for about 60 percent of export and import activities in the country.
Those still delivering goods were turned back at the entrance gates, where each of the about 6,000 trucks using the port daily pay an entrance fee of Rp 5,000.
The effect of the strike was quickly felt by the port authority. The assistant manager of customer service and public relations at Tanjung Priok Port, Ambar Wiyadi, said it suffered Rp 30 million in losses Monday from the halt in sales of entry tickets.
Ambar said the port was providing three warehouses and seven temporary open storage enclosures for undelivered goods. Delivery will be made using smaller vehicles whose operators are not Organda members. "Storage services will be free for the next four days. After that, there will be charges," Ambar said.
The chairman of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sofyan Pane, said the goods could also be stored at the Koja storage site not far from the port.
Businesspeople feared the wider ramifications if the strike continues. The chairman of the Indonesian Freight Forwarders Association in Tanjung Priok, Sunyoto Wihadi, said the strike would affect international confidence in business activities here. "The government must find a win-win solution to solve the problem immediately," he said.