Free Fiscal fee effective from January 1st. 2011

Indonesians to enjoy  Free Fiscal Fee

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Indonesians will enjoy free fiscal fee overseas travel starting next year, a senior official said. Director of Public Service and Information of the Tax Directorate General M Iqbal Alamsyah said Tuesday his office starting January 2011 would give a free fiscal facility for people aged 21 and over  who did not have a tax ID number.

Previously from January 1, 2009, to December 31, 2010, free fiscal facility was only applicable to with a tax ID number.  Iqbal said the new policy was part of the government’s program to make it easier for those going abroad for various purposes such as education or medical check up.

Up till now, fiscal fee traveling abroad costs Rp 2.5 million for those traveling by air, and Rp 1 million traveling by sea.

Free For All Seasons Starts Over Asean Skies

By Vicki Febrianto

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had agreed to liberalize air transportation in the area, ushering in a new era into its connectivity.

The transportation ministers of the regional grouping reached a milestone in air transport arrangements as they concluded their 16th Ministerial Meeting in Brunei Darussalam, according to ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta (Nov 12). ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.




















ASEAN is accelerating the pace of establishing a common market in 11 key sectors by 2015 at the latest. With the end goal of creating an ASEAN Economic Community ("connectivity"), the ten countries have adopted a Framework Agreement for the integration of 11 priority sectors, including air travel.

The Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for the ASEAN Economic Community S. Pushpanathan lauded the agreement saying that it will "significantly enhance air transport competitiveness especially in facilitating air travel among ASEAN cities that ultimately support the tourism industry in the region and enhance connectivity within ASEAN."

Nathan added that it is "a comprehensive document covering all sectors in transportation cooperation that would complement the implementation of the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity."

Upon the signing of the agreement, designated airlines of an ASEAN member state can soon fly and carry traffic from their respective capitals and any city with an international airport to its counterpart in the other member states, while ensuring fully the third, fourth and fifth freedom of traffic rights.

Where the third freedom of traffic rights allow an airline to fly and carry traffic from its own country to another, the fourth gives the reverse, the fifth rights, meanwhile, enable an airline to fly and carry traffic between two countries in ASEAN during flights while the flight originates or ends in one`s own country.

What was officially signed by ASEAN Transport Ministers was "ASEAN Multilateral Agreement on the Full Liberalization of Passenger Air Services" and with its two protocols.

The ASEAN Transportation Ministers also approved the "Brunei Action Plan (BAP) - ASEAN Strategic Transportation Cooperation Plan 2011-2015" which will guide ASEAN transportation cooperation and integration over the next five years.

The Action Plan identifies strategic action to be implemented over the prescribed period to support the realization of the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015 as well as the new priority of enhancing regional connectivity identified in the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity.


Indonesia ready

Indonesia, the largest economy in ASEAN and fast growing market for air transport, has taken steps to get itself truly ready for the free for all seasons over ASEAN skies. The government has asked the management of most Indonesian airports, Angkasa Pura I & II, to upgrade four major air gateways.

The four airports are Soekarno-Hatta (Jakarta), Polonia (Medan, North Sumatra), Juanda (Surabaya) and Ngurah Rai (Denpasar). In the opinion of Minister of Transportation Freddy Numberi, only Makassar`s Sultan Hasanuddin Airport is fully prepared for open skies.

"Sultan Hasanuddin Airport is very prepared, meanwhile other four airports need development. This doesn`t mean that the four airports are not ready, they still need modernization and improvements so they can become fully operational when the ASEAN Open Sky commences," Numberi told newsmen at Parliament in Jakarta

Citing Juanda Airport in Surabaya as one example, Numberi said that the planned capacity of 6 million passengers per year has already been exceeded with 11 million passengers flying via the East Java airport. Numberi also called on Angkasa Pura II to undertake improvements at Jakarta`s Soekarno-Hatta airport, the country`s number one international airport.

Describing the future challenges posed by the ASEAN Open Skies policy, the Minister listed the need for high standards in customer service, radar and navigation equipment, runways, taxiways, aprons and manpower training.














Indonesia is presently only preparing five air gateways for full participation in ASEAN Open Skies starting in 2015 which will allow the free-flow of Southeast Asian airlines between major airports in the region.


The largest market

A study on Indonesian transportation has indicated that as the largest archipelagic state in the world with over 1.9 million square kilometers, Indonesia is one of the countries that have the biggest potential in the mobility of commodities and people in the world. With such potential, it is reasonable if the growth of the transportation sector in Indonesia is very impressive.

The potential of air transportation was even cited as being an attractive phenomenon in which a significant shifting took place from train to airplane transportation in the last 10 years. If in 1996, airplane passenger transportation was only 7.5 percent of the total number of passengers, only a year later in 2007 the figure had surged 15.3 percent to 34 million.

The significant switch was identified since 2001, when private airlines started to operate low cost carriers as a market penetration strategy. Even though there were various unfavorable factors that could influence passenger transportation, such as airplane crashes, damaged roads and railway robbing, however passenger transportation is predicted to be more prospective.

Indonesian air transportation has started a new era in 1999 since the government gave permission to private sector to establish airline companies. The number of domestic airline passengers grew significantly by 22 percent per year since 2000. If in 1996 prior to the economic crisis, the number of air passengers reached 13.5 million, in November 2007 the number tripled to 36.13 million.

Moreover, the number of international flights also grew significantly by 11.91 percent from the previous year to 13.93 million this year. (*)