The Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DGCE) of Indonesia hosted a workshop on “Increasing the Effectiveness of Post Clearance Audit (PCA) through Customs and Tax Cooperation” at the DGCE’s Education and Training Centre in Jakarta on 1-4 October.

Customs auditors and senior-rank officers from eight ASEAN Member States and the Directorate General of Tax (DGT) of Indonesia, as well as representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat attended the workshop which was facilitated by the DGCE’s regional experts and speaker from the DGT.

The workshop aimed to enhance ASEAN Customs officers in technical and professional capability particularly on the implementation of PCA by elaborating on the World Customs Organization’s Guidelines on Strengthening Cooperation and Exchange of Information between Customs – Tax Authorities at National Level.

The participants discussed some recent post-clearance audit cases and national issues to enhance comprehensive understanding of such cases in each country. The insights from the discussion contributed to promoting the implementation of risk management; accelerating modernisation of customs processes; and enhancing cooperation with the respective tax authorities/agencies for having more effective PCA implementation.

On the second day of the workshop, the participants attended a ceremony led by Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati to commemorate the Indonesian National Customs’ Day. Following the ceremony, participants visited DGCE’s Directorate of Audit to experience daily activities in post-clearance audit processes that involved direct interactions between customs officers and companies/stakeholders. Further, they visited Customs Contact Center, the DGCE Radio and the newly-opened Indonesian Customs Museum.