INDONESIA’S Directorate General of Customs and Excise has clarified that it will not be making drastic changes to its baggage check system despite a new ruling on import duty on travellers’ personal belongings that kicked in on January 1 (TTG Asia e-Daily, December 3).
When the new regulation was announced last November, speculations were rife among the travel industry that stringent baggage checks would be conducted starting this year.
Import duty is imposed on personal belongings and commercial goods exceeding US$250 per person or US$1,000 per family, a limit that was already part of an older regulation.
What is new is primarily a revised Customs Declaration (CD) form, said Customs and Excise spokesman Evi Suhartantyo.
“We received complaints that our CD is complicated. So we cut the size, reduced the questions from 15 to 11 and provided separate forms for Bahasa Indonesia and English,” she said.
Travellers also have to declare cash, cheques or other forms of payment with a value exceeding US$11,100.
Suhartantyo told the media: “Customs at the airports or seaports will proceed as usual. It’s impossible to check baggage one by one as it would jam the ports. Customs will only look for suspicious baggage.”
