Immigration matters

Referring to the letter of Mr. Van Der Spil on Oct. 25 (Social visit visa) please allow me to tell you that if you are a social visit visa (No.421) holder, you do not have to pay (under no circumstances) the Rp 1 million exit tax except if you have prolonged your visa not four times (six months), but five times (staying seven months or so).

So, if you leave the country one day late, you do not have to pay exit tax. Also there is no use for any immigration officers to start counting since one day delay would mean leaving the country one day after the date indicated on your last official visa extension. It's as simple as that! Please refer to the supposed-to-be-free book (no official price on it) Immigration Guidance 1997-1998 that I bought from a civil servant of the Public Relations Bureau, Directorate General of Immigration, Jakarta, for Rp 200,000, without getting an invoice in June 1998.

So Mr. Van Der Spil, if you have kept the exit tax receipt, you may ask for a refund from the taxation office. Your passport will serve as a proof of your goodwill.

Last September, I left the country with a one-day delay (I left on a Monday to get my new visa instead of Sunday because the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore is closed on Sunday), I was then rudely asked by a bunch of immigration officers at Soekarno-Hatta to report to the Directorate General of Immigration on Jl. Rasuna Said. If you are easily impressed, you would pay anything to these guys just to get away from them.

If I am not mistaken we have the right to leave Indonesia with a maximum 14-day delay if we have an acceptable reason.

Referring to the letter on exit tax by Mrs. Pravin Sonthalia recently, my wife had unsuccessfully asked for clarification for our two foreign children on the same matter from the tax office, and of course got no reply.

I also had never heard of the new law of Sept. 22, 1999, ruling that children under the age of 12 do not have to pay exit tax.

Still I am convinced that when I leave the country with my Indonesian wife and my two under-12 Belgian kids holding a KITAS, the immigration officers will again harass me to pay an additional Rp 2 million in exit tax for my two kids. Why wouldn't they try since every time I leave the country alone to request a new social visit visa in Singapore, they do their best to convince me to pay exit tax? They and I know perfectly well that I don't have to pay it.

So, I would like the tax office to tell me whether the Sept. 2 law applies to my kids. We are all awaiting for clarification from the tax office.

YVAN MAGAIN

Bandung