The issue has sparked public debate following a report about a traveler who had to pay $408 to customs officer at an airport for a bag he bought in Singapore, went viral on social media.

The Finance Ministry’s customs and excise director general, Heru Pambudi, said the government would seek input from businesspeople and find references from other countries in connection with the import taxes.

“This is input for us. We also want to compare our policy with those in other countries,” said Heru as reported by tempo.co on Tuesday.

Heru added that his office had received various ideas related to the ceiling of import taxes on goods purchased in other countries by travelers.

“Some people advise us to double the ceiling, while others say it should be increased ten times,” the official added.

The debated rule is stipulated under Finance Ministerial Regulation No. 188/2010 on imported goods. Although the regulation was issued seven years ago, many people were not aware of it because it was only recently enforced.

Heru stressed the increase of the ceiling on import taxes would not be significant because it was part of the mechanism to protect locally manufactured goods.

“We will talks to the producers of local handicrafts and importers of consumer goods,” Heru added. (bbn)

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