Airport tax matters

Airport tax matters

From Neraca

Recently, I traveled to Surabaya for the umpteenth time. My
arrival, this time, was rather special because I arrived by
plane.

I would like to emphasize that my story about the trip to
Surabaya is related to airport tax matters. The airport tax
sticker, no longer attached to my ticket raised a problem, for me
at least.

Everyone leaving Soekarno-Hatta airport is taxed Rp 11,000.
Padang and Pekanbaru's airport tax would surely be a different
amount. It is quite certain that the disparity in airport taxes
was adopted because of different facilities at every airport.

But to me, Surabaya's airport tax is an amusing joke at Rp
9,900. It certainly proved so to passengers standing in line.

One of them retorted: "Wow, airport tax tariffs here resemble
supermarket prices. If we pay with a Rp 10,000 bill, do we get
the change? In supermarkets they have replaced small change with
candies worth Rp 100."

It was interesting that the joke referred to airport tax
calculations. Why do airport tax tariffs differ from one place to
another? What are calculations based upon since prices are not
uniform at airports? Are these taxes returned to the government
or shared among the various regions? And what department is
responsible for my complaints?

HELMI

Bogor, West Java