Corruption at immigration

Corruption at immigration

From Gatra

According to Circular Letter of the Directorate General of Tax
(No.SE-19/PJ-41/1996 dated May 15, 1996) Indonesian sailors who
work on ships abroad are exempted from fiscal tax. The exemption
comes directly from Immigration officials, without prior
recommendation from the tax office being necessary. Sailors need
to show a sailor's book, a work agreement and a Letter of
Guarantee (LG) from their employer. Those who work on harbor
craft in Singapore can obviously arrange a work permit card whose
validity is guaranteed, because it is almost impossible to forge
such a letter.

As sailors, my colleagues and I hail the policy as fair.
Unfortunately, most of the tax and immigration officers both in
Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Jakarta and Juanda airport in Surabaya
ignore it. The upshot is obvious. Immigration officials demand
bribes of up to Rp 150,000 from us. Yet the sailors reluctantly
pay up, simply because they cannot afford to lose their jobs by
delaying their departure.

The authorities must do something about this. Let's create
"clean government".

ACHMAD S.

Singapore