Corruption at customs

Let me assure you from personal experience that corruption is back in the customs process in a big way and that virtually nothing is computerized. I recently tried to clear a small package through customs at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, and it took all day. I simply lost track of how many people I had to pay off and how much money I spent.

While the duty was only 25 percent of the declared value of the goods, the total cost to clear the items was about 150 percent of the value of the goods.

For instance, it took Rp 90,000 in a small unmarked envelope in the file passed into Loket 8 in order to have the file looked at that day, "because the package was more than 20 kilograms". It took another Rp 100,000 later that day at the same customs window to achieve another step in the process.

It was Rp 30,000 here, Rp 30,000 there, another Rp 30,000 at the next window, Rp 10,000 to get someone in the warehouse to find the package and bring it out, Rp 30,000 to have a customs man glance at the contents and initial the paper and another Rp 30,000 to another customs man to let the package through the front door of the godown. And if you don't have a fixer to lead you through the process, you will never be able to figure it out and do it yourself, so the Rp 200,000 you pay him is worth every rupiah.

In all, I think I paid Rp 2 million for a 25 kg package of goods worth US$700, 25 percent duty, 20 percent something else, 10 percent added on here, 6.5 percent added on there and then the grease money on and on and on. It's business as usual at customs so you better have a deep pocket full of rupiah if you want to clear even a small package through airport customs. And I think I saw only one computer being used all day. My goods were insignificantly small, running up the cost of the economy, and in my case, on products designed to conserve the environmental resources of Indonesia. It's disgusting.

Name and address

known to the editor