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Netizens slam customs authorities for only acting after viral complaints
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Delivering their message: A hand holds a smartphone showing social media icons in this illustration. Indonesians have taken to social media to voice their frustration with the Customs and Excise Directorate General, after a number of cases involving the authorities mishandling imports went viral this week. (Pexels/Magnus Mueller) (Pexels/Magnus Mueller)
F
ollowing a number of viral cases involving the Customs and Excise Directorate General this week, Indonesians online have called on the authorities to improve their services.
Recently, a social media user Radhika Althaf uploaded a short video on TikTok explaining that the customs and excise authorities had asked him to pay excise duty amounting to Rp 31 million (US$1,911) for a pair of soccer shoes he bought online from overseas.
"The shoes cost a mere Rp 10 million and I have to pay triple the amount for the excise duty. It does not make any sense," he said in a video that quickly went viral across several social media platforms.
After filing a complaint, Radhika discovered that a large chunk of the excise duty was actually a fine for under-invoicing the product’s price. The fine, however, was eventually imposed on the courier service responsible for the mistake.
The delivery company ended up paying the fine of Rp 24.7 million, and Radhika paid a total of Rp 6 million for the excise duty and tax.
Following the viral video, a school for children with disabilities (SLB) in Jakarta revealed that customs authorities had held up some 30 braille keyboards donated by a South Korean company since 2022, as the school had failed to pay the customs duties amounting to hundreds of millions of rupiah.
"We were asked to pay excise duty of more than Rp 100 million and also pay for daily storage fees. The braille keyboards don't even cost that much," a teacher from the school with the username @ijalzaid wrote on social media X last week.
