Foreign Tourists To Bali Will Be Charged With Rp150,000 In Retribution, This Is The Response Of Tourism Entrepreneurs

JAKARTA - The Provincial Government (Pemprov) of Bali plans to collect tourism taxes, aka levies to foreign tourists or tourists, amounting to IDR 150,000. This new rule is planned to take effect on Wednesday, February 14, 2024.

Related to this, the General Chairperson of the Indonesian Tourism Industry Association (GIPI) Haryadi Sukamdani considered that the mechanism that would be implemented in Bali was not well organized.

"In our view, the mechanism to Bali is not well organized as an instrument of taxation as a whole. Why does it happen in Bali like that? Because the province of Bali feels that they do not get income from tourism activities," Haryadi told reporters at the Constitutional Court office, Jakarta, Wednesday, February 7.

He also considered that the regulation needed to be reorganized. Because, it is feared that later there will be other provinces in Indonesia that will follow.

"It should be better regulated in the future because if that's the case, we are worried that all regions will add more additions. So, in our opinion, it will not be good in the future," he said.

Furthermore, Haryadi considered that the levy was considered a tourism fund or special tourism fund. However, GIPI sees the retribution of foreign tourists as a public legal service body. In other words, all promotional funds will be collected from there.

"Later, if Bali makes it, other regions (ikut) make it with various reasons. It will be unfavorable later," he said.

Until now, Haryadi continued, his party was still discussing the retribution with the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf).

"We are discussing it internally GIPI and we have also communicated with the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy in the future," he added.