Tax on import goods

Tax on import goods

May I crave a few of your valuable column inches to finally
bring down the curtain on the drama of the Rp 29,680 charge on
the import (via airmail) of a videocassette (cost price 8 Pounds,
about Rp 27,000 at today's date rate of exchange). My reason for
writing again is that on Aug. 9, 1994 I was surprised (and
pleased) to be called upon at my office by two quite senior Post
Office officials. They visited me at the behest of the Head of
Public Relations at the Post Office, in connection with my recent
letter in The Jakarta Post, entitled Post Office levy.

In that letter I had complained of the above outrageous
charge, and that, when my wife had made an initial enquiry at the
South Jakarta Post Office, she had been told that it was "in the
computer." A somewhat cryptic answer from a counter clerk! She
accordingly went to the Main Post Office to enquire further,
since in my letter I had suggested that such an enormous levy
could only be due to a little "Manipulation" (i.e. fiddling) with
the computer, so that a tidy sum could find its way into the
pocket of some needy Post Office worker.

I was wrong. My visitors explained to me most courteously that
the vast imposition of import duty + VAT + Luxury Tax on a
videocassette (even a blank) was nothing to do with the Post
Office. It seems that what happens is that any package (even a
small one, containing just one videocassette) that arrives at the
Post Office should be sent to Customs Excise for inspection. In
fact, when my wife went to raise the matter at the Main Post
Office, she was referred to a very senior Customs & Excise
official, with epaulets (C & E share the Post Office building),
who explained that these were indeed the taxes that had recently
been imposed on videocassettes entering this country, regardless
of value or content.

Therefore I am happy to report that the Post Office is
blameless in this matter, apart from passing certain packages to
Customs & Excise, which they are obliged to do. One question
remains unanswered, however, and I should be grateful if a
Customs & Excise official could call on me to explain what was
not explained to my wife by the senior official she spoke with.

The question is this: How on earth can such a precise figure
of tax (Rp 29,680) be arrived at without reference to the
cost/value of the item subjected to those three levies--import
duty, VAT and Luxury Tax? Would the taxes be the same if the
article was worth US$ 10 or $ 100? I can hardly believe that to
be so, yet from what I hear from the Post Office, that is what C
& E appear to be telling us. How can a boring little thing like a
videocassette attract over 100 percent in taxes, irrespective of
its actual value? The Post Office is exonerated. Now let's hear
from Customs & Excise!

RB SAWREY-COOKSON

Jakarta