Post Office levy

Post Office levy

In my letter (Post Office levy, The Jakarta Post, July 5,
1994) about a horrendous levy on a videocassette sent to me from
England, I promised to let readers know the outcome of my
complaint to the Post Office.

My wife, being Indonesian and therefore better able to argue
about such things than I am, was able to see a fairly senior
official at the Main Post Office, who explain that the levy of Rp
29,678 was indeed correct. Under some recently introduced
regulation, it appears that a videocassette will attract Import
Duty + VAT + Luxury Tax, regardless of the content--it could even
be a blank! So my advice to readers is to be wary about having
videocassettes sent from abroad, since Indonesian taxes will just
about double their cost.

RB SAWREY-COOKSON

Jakarta