DENPASAR - Staff at the international airport of Ngurah Rai on the resort island of Bali again have found a way to extort money for unknowing tourist that are leaving for home. This time it's fake tax duties that are filling up pockets of crooked employees at the airport. Where Indonesia does not see internet as a way to advertise, Australians know how this works and use email to tell others their story.
"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. 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."
The woman wanted to stay anonymous, obviously because those crooked staff will go to any length to avoid their 'business' being harmed, including blacklisting stubborn foreigners. She said this was the second serious harassment she was aware of. A friend of her faced an attempt to extortion, but he was a journalist and asked why there were additional fees to be paid all of a sudden.
It's not the first time that airport staff at the Ngurah Rai international airport tries to extort money from tourists. People involved include staff from various government departments and companies active at the airport from immigration officers to ground crew. Back in 2007, then vice-president Jusuf Kalla ordered a staff member to be sacked over a case where an elderly couple was extorted for some 4,000 dollars.
Always the same shit on Bali, but this is another climax I suppose.
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DENPASAR - Staff at the international airport of Ngurah Rai on the resort island of Bali again have found a way to extort money for unknowing tourist that are leaving for home. This time it's fake tax duties that are filling up pockets of crooked employees at the airport. Where Indonesia does not see internet as a way to advertise, Australians know how this works and use email to tell others their story.
