Foreign Tourist Charges In New Bali Reach IDR 318 Billion, Koster Proposes To Collaborate With Third Party With 3 Percent Incentives

DENPASAR - The Provincial Government and the Bali DPRD have begun discussing the Draft Regional Regulation on Amendments to Regional Regulation Number 6 of 2023 concerning Charges for Foreign Tourists for Cultural Protection.

Bali Governor Wayan Koster said the draft regional regulation (Raperda) for changes to foreign tourists' levies would include several things, such as providing incentives for third parties who help collect levies to impose sanctions on tourists who do not pay Rp. 150 thousand.

In the draft submitted to the DPRD, the Bali Provincial Government includes material on cooperation between the government and other parties in the form of a cooperation agreement.

Furthermore, there will be a service fee for a person or group who helps organize this foreign tourists levy.

"A person or group in collaboration with the provincial government in organizing levies for foreign tourists can be given a service fee of at least 3 percent of the amount and the amount of levy transactions," said Governor Koster.

In the draft change, this content is included in Chapter V A of Cooperation and ChapterV B of Jasa Imbal, namely in Articles 13 A and 13 B.

He said the step to update this regulation was due to obstacles in collecting levies since February 14, 2024.

"This can be seen from the number of foreign tourist visits to Bali in 2024 as many as 6,333,360 tourists, only 2,121,388 tourists pay levies or around 33.5 percent," he said.

In addition to providing incentives for those who help, to optimize this program, Governor Koster added content regarding administrative sanctions for foreign tourists who do not pay.

It is written in ChapterVIII A Article 16 A point 2, namely the sanction in question in the form of a verbal warning and recorded in the Love Bali system, a written warning delivered to the person concerned, so that he does not receive services in tourist attractions.

Head of the Bali Provincial Tourism Office, Tjok Bagus Pemayun, added that so far their partners in organizing only BPD Bali who are also agents of collecting foreign tourists' levies.

If you stick to current regulations, Tjok Pemayun sees difficulties because what is regulated is the installation of an autoscanner gate or scanner that has not been realized so far.

The mechanism involving third parties is an option to optimize foreign tourists' levies.