Flying the friendly skies without ‘fiskal’

Mariani Dewi, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang | Fri, 01/02/2009 8:25 AM  

Airline passengers exempt from paying the fiskal, or exit tax at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport said they were happy with the new policy on the first day of its implementation on Thursday, adding the exemption procedure was easy. 

Ratu, a civil servant and mother of three, was booked on a flight to Bangkok with her husband and children on Thursday. The tax number (NPWP) she had held for many years meant she was exempt from paying the exit tax. 

“I’m impressed with the service, it was so fast. It only took five minutes for the whole family to get exemption,” she said. 

She added airport officials only asked to see her and her husband’s NPWPs. 

A South Korean expatriate, Kim Sung Kyung, about to board a flight home to Seoul, said the new policy had helped him greatly because he traveled several times a year for medical treatment. 

“I’m very happy about this new policy, because I used to pay a million (rupiah) every time I flew,” he said. 

However, Kim also said many of his Korean friends were not aware of the policy. 

Park Ju Tae, president director of a private company, was one of those left in the dark. On Thursday, he paid Rp 2.5 million to board his flight to South Korea. 

“I was surprised by the raise. It gave me a headache. Many of my Korean colleagues didn’t know about this policy. Fortunately, I brought enough money. Had I not brought enough, I would have had to cancel the trip,” he said. 

Viki Ariawan, head of the tax office’s monitoring and service division at the airport, said the government had publicized the new NPWP policy since 2007 through all kinds of media. However, he said he was aware the exit tax policy was published less than two weeks ago. 

Agus Purnomo Adi, head of tax office’s exit tax division at the airport, said that on the first day of the implementation, hundreds of passengers still paid the tax. 

“I’ll get the full report by midnight, but I guess the number of those who paid will be less than before because many got exemption,” he said.

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