Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan said the value of the used clothing destroyed was about 80 billion rupiah (US$5.3 million), the highest amount recorded thus far.
Prior to this, he said that the destruction of illegal used clothing had previously been carried out in Pekanbaru and East Java.
Local media reported that the Indonesian government destroyed more than 800 sacks of used clothing worth 10 billion rupiah in East Java on Mar 20.
Action was taken to destroy the clothes, Mr Zulkifli said on Tuesday, because they were illegally smuggled into the country.
“The import of used goods is prohibited under the law. Such as the import of used air conditioners, used refrigerators, used TVs as well as used clothing.
“There are imports of used goods that are allowed, for example for defense, such as F-16 aircraft. Because buying new ones is expensive, so we buy used ones,” said Mr Zulkifli.
Mr Zulkifli added that the government is now hoping to eradicate the illegal imports of clothes from the upstream by targeting the suppliers.
“We eradicate it from the upstream. If the upstream stops, the retailers will stop too,” said Mr Zulkifli, adding that the government has yet to take firm action against retailers of illegally imported secondhand clothing.
He told the media that the goods entered from abroad through many small ports in Indonesia, namely in Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan.