Ridiculous exit tax

Ridiculous exit tax

I couldn't be more agreeable with Martin R. Jenkins (The
Jakarta Post, Sept. 23, 2000) that it is now time to abolish the
departure tax. The tax is a burden and it's not healthy.

I was supposed to go to Singapore once a month for a year for
training, sponsored by a Singaporean company, but because of the
departure tax which is more expensive than my return economy
class ticket, my schedule there had been reduced to three times
annually. I tried to explain to my sponsoring company about this
departure tax policy, but they seemed unable to understand such a
peculiar tax which has never been applied in any other countries.
Reduced trips to Singapore was a big loss for me and I lost my
opportunity to learn more.

A friend of mine who is a Singapore Permanent Resident and
works in Singapore must pay the departure tax if he travels
Singapore-Jakarta-Singapore more than twice a year because he is
exempted from paying the tax only for these two annual trips.
This tax limits his movements. He is an Indonesian working abroad
and every time he wants to come back to his country he will have
to think twice.

It's unreasonable for the Indonesian government to have
implemented such tax. It becomes even more unreasonable to have
implemented the tax to an Indonesian working abroad and to a
foreigner with a temporary residence visa. It's time to abolish
the departure tax.

Nobody objects to personal income tax or corporate tax because
it's our duty as a citizen to pay tax to our government and such
taxes are common in almost every country. But to pay such a
ridiculous departure tax is a different case although we can do
nothing about it. You pay the tax or you never go abroad.

ADRIANUS HIYUNG TJUNG

Jakarta