Top tourism officials in Bali have acknowledged that the new system for the Tourism Tax Levy is not running as it should. With flaws in the system, thousands of tourists are believed to be dodging paying the fee or are simply unaware of the new law. The Bali Tourism Tax Levy came into effect on February 14, 2024.
Although international top officials were pleased with how the system was running, despite some starting hiccups, there are now concerns that it is “not running optimally, neither is socialization.” A series of mitigations are now in place to ensure that tourists pay their dues, as required by law.
The Bali Tourism Tax costs IDR 150,000 per person, per stay in Bali. All travelers on the visa on arrival, e-Visa on arrival and socio-cultural visas are required to pay the fee before they leave the province.
Tourists have been encouraged to pay the fee online before arriving in Bali to save time, or on arrival at Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport.
It was confirmed just last week that only 40% of all eligible arrivals have been paying their tourism tax. Tjok Bagus Pemayun, the Head of the Bali Tourism Office, told reporters, “Since the foreign tourist levy was implemented, an average of 5,000 foreign tourists paid per day.”
On average, Bali sees 15,000 international arrivals a day during this low season. With 60% of international arrivals not paying their dues in the last month, tourism stakeholders in Bali have criticized the system as a whole rather than blaming tourists, reported The Bali Sun.
Top tourism leader, Wayan Puspa Negara, who is based in the Legian resort, told reporters that the current system “has many holes.” Negara said, “At the airport, there are no payment counters that intensively charge fees. So far the payment system uses an application, and the existing offers can only attract a few foreign tourists so we need to add more counters (at the airport).”
He suggested that airlines take on some of the responsibility of checking that tourists have paid their tourism taxes. Negara said that flight attendants could check whether passengers had paid their fees.
Negara further suggested that tourism attractions in Bali could be doing more to support the new system. He explained “Hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions can all be endpoints, where foreign tourists are checked whether they have paid or not.”
Contrary to what Bali’s Head of Tourism said last week, Negara feels not enough tourists yet know there is even a tourism tax to May.
With 60% of foreign arrivals not paying up, Negara said, “the government needs to carry out more intense and massive outreach. Especially in countries that are the largest source of foreign tourists to Bali.”
Pemayun told reporters last week that since there has been so much socialization and communication about the tourism tax, there are no excuses for tourists not to have paid their fees.
With this in mind, he has deployed the Tourism Satpol Police Units to conduct spot checks on tourists across Bali in the coming weeks, added the report by The Bali Sun.
Officers on patrol will be tasked with checking and scanning the QR code on the tourism tax voucher that is emailed to tourists once they have completed the payment.
The Tourism Police, in their ranger-like uniforms, accompanied by their Kintamni puppies, will be conducting spot checks and patrols in Uluwatu and Tampaksiring (close to Ubud), as well as at Tanah Lot Temple and Ulun Danu Beratan for the next two weeks.
Pemayun confirmed that tourism tax payment counters would be installed at the domestic terminal of I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport by the end of the month. However, there has not been any indication that more payment kiosks will be opened in the international arrivals’ hall. Tourists can visit the LoveBali app or website to complete their payment online up to two weeks before or during their visit to the province.
