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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