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