In Reply to: drinks posted by suell on Wednesday, 5. July 2006 at 19:24 Bali Time:
We have been to Bali many, many times (14 or 15 - lost count) over the last 20 years. We stay 3-4 weeks each time. We have always taken extra alcohol and ALWAYS declared it, being prepared to pay the 'tax' for the convenience of having a selection of drinks at our room on hand. However, trip 2004-2005, we were pulled up by customs and advised that we had 'broken the law', I swiftly advised we HAD NOT as we had declared the excess ... (imagine if that card had of gone missing, I guess I could have been sharing a cell with the other aussies). The customs officer asked, my husband and I who is the boss, as I had had many more trips to Bali I advised I was 'Boss for the day', hubby and kids whisked through customs with no problems.I was then taken to a room, with about 4 customs officers and many, many tourists, with heaps of aussie money laying on the desks and being freely handed over. I was told that tax was 5 times the cost of the spirits, to which I laughed. Customs officer wanted Jack Daniels and continued to asked if I had it. I told them to keep the spirits and I was not paying 'tax'. As we had alcohol they did not want, bundy rum, southern etc, and would not pay the 'huge tax' they went and got a SENIOR customs officier, I went through 3 officiers. Mind you heaps of aussies continued to hand over money in excess of $70 a bottle (tax), I guess they were first timers, or a little nervous??? Or maybe the Schapelle case influenced their decision to part with their holiday funds. The senior customs officer continued to negotiate with me and showed me many 'custom'cards with $70 to $105 already paid per bottle. I agreed to about $50 total, after half an hour they accepted it. When I returned I told the officer I wanted a receipt. He said there are no receipts. I refused to give him $50 without a receipt and then proceeded to negotiate and finally paid $20 for all of our spirits (without a receipt) and was reunited with my family. My bartering had started early that year!! This experience was not for the faint hearted, they were extremely imtimidating and many times I told them to just take all of our alcohol, the only reason they didn't is we didn't have what they wanted!!!! You make the decision, we still take excess and we declare what we have, however what if my customs card goes missing, as many things do in indonesia. You decide, remember this is only one trip out of 14 or 15!