Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport staff officers have irritated tourists this week by slapping tax duties on souvenirs bought on the holiday island.
In an email currently doing the rounds, an Australian woman shared two cases when baggage checkers demanded customs excises on goods bought in Bali.
"Yesterday my friends visiting from Singapore were really hassled in the Denpasar airport.
"The baggage checkers kept telling them and me that we had to pay tax and customs on all items we had purchased in Bali," wrote the Australian woman, who has requested anonymity.
"I knew better, and had my receipts, pointing out that tax had already been paid. The poor guy behind me handed over a hundred dollars and suddenly no more tax was needed."
She said this was the second serious harassment she was aware of.
Another friend who also faced attempted extortion at the Ngurah Rai Airport is an Australian journalist, wrote the woman.
"Don't people come here to shop? If there are additional fees at the airport it will affect the mom and pop businesses," she wrote.
Ngurah Rai Airport staffers have a long and ugly history of attempting to extort illegal fees in the name of taxes or fines from visitors.
In 2007 an Australian woman, Dorothy Longhurst, arrived in Bali from Australia to recuperate after battling cancer.
Her passport was two weeks short of the required six months until expiry.
According to reports of the time, an airport official demanded US$4,000 to allow the woman to holiday in Bali.
She and her husband refused and were put on the next plane back to Australia.
The then former vice president, Jusuf Kalla reportedly ordered the Justice and Human Rights Ministry to sack the official in question.
At the time Bali Tourism Board chairman Cokorda Oka Artha Ardhana Sukawati agreed that the board often received complaints of attempted extortion at the airport.
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