Govt to build 25 lighthouses

Govt to build 25 lighthouses

JAKARTA: The government is expected to increase the
administrative fee for issuing passports, as the current fee of
Rp 260,000 (about US$27) does not cover production costs.

A spokesperson for the Directorate General of Immigration,
Supriyatna Anwar, confirmed there were plans to increase the fee
but would not say by how much or when.

"This should be covered by a government regulation, but there
is no such regulation at the moment. All I know is that the
production costs of passports are higher than the current fee,"
he told The Jakarta Post.

The current fee for obtaining a passport consists of Rp
200,000 for the document, Rp 55,000 for the photograph and Rp
5,000 for the stamps.

However, many people pay middlemen anywhere from Rp 400,000 to
Rp 600,000 to deal with the whole bureaucratic process of
obtaining applying for a passport. --JP