Bali Secretary: Proposed Sanctions For Confinement Of Foreign Tourists Who Don't Pay Charges Are Still Discourse

Bali Regional Secretary (Sekda) Dewa Made Indra was interviewed about the discourse of imprisonment sanctions related to foreign tourists levies in Badung, Monday (9/9/2024). BETWEEN/Ni Putu Putri Muliantari

BADUNG - Bali Regional Secretary (Sekda) Dewa Made Indra said that the proposal of the Acting Governor of Bali Sang Made Mahendra regarding sanctions for foreign tourists who do not pay levies is still a discourse.

"We just have a discourse, we will inventory everything, what ideas are needed to perfect regional regulations," said Made Indra, Monday, September 9.

It was previously known that the Acting Governor of Bali hoped that the revision of regulations related to foreign tourist levies could include fines (small criminal acts), both penalty fines and imprisonment for a week.

The Bali Regional Secretary acknowledged that the revised discourse did exist, but all proposals will be discussed with the Bali DPRD, especially the proposal of the Acting Governor of Bali which leads to criminal sanctions.

"It will be discussed later, this is a regional regulation that the application of sanctions requires discussion with related parties because we are talking about sanctions, let alone leading to criminal penalties, so the discussion will take longer," he said.

It is planned that the discourse on imposing this sanction will be discussed in 2025 considering that the Bali DPRD for this period has just been inaugurated.

In addition to imprisonment sanctions, the idea of providing incentives for parties helping the Bali Provincial Government collect foreign tourists levies of IDR 150,000 per visit also emerged.

"Many parties want to help this, but what is called cooperation will definitely provide assistance on the one hand, get benefits on the other, that's normal," said Dewa Indra.

After identifying the proposal for a revision of the foreign tourist levy regulations, the discussion will be carried out later.

So far, the Bali Provincial Government has seen tourists not pay levies due to lack of information or the role of travel agents, so cooperation is considered important.

Apart from travel agents, there are also tourism industry players who manage accommodation or destinations that can be invited to cooperate.

"Once again, this still requires strengthening because this is new, then the next reason may also be because there are no sanctions, but is that because as far as we know, foreign tourists from developed countries are very law-abiding," he said, quoted by ANTARA.

"Therefore, the regional regulation does not include sanctions because we assume to be positive, that the achievement is not yet optimal, this process is still ongoing," continued the Bali Regional Secretary.