Aspaki secretary-general Cristina Sandjaja said that more often than not, the high costs of importing the raw materials needed to produce medical devices left the domestic industry so uncompetitive, it was cheaper to import finished products.

“We have several times conveyed to the government the idea of lowering taxes on imported raw materials,” she said on Tuesday, as quoted by Bisnis.com.

For example, Chinese nylon products with harmonized system (HS) codes 59032000 and 59039090 were imposed a 10 percent import duty as well as requirements for obtaining technical approval (Pertek) and an import permit (PI), Cristina said.

In comparison, she said the government only imposed a 5 percent tax on imported finished goods from China with HS code 90189090.

“We suggest the import tax [for raw materials] be lower than for finished products,” Cristina said, expressing her hope that the government would tighten supervision of e-commerce platforms to detect illegally distributed medical devices.