Image: Visas and overstay payments. Credit: ST
Daniel Koliba, 29, from Czechoslovakia complained about an immigration overstay payment, which he alleges was different with the bill he received from Bali Immigration office. He claims he was asked to pay and paid Rp 14 million, but later he discovered from the bill that he should have only paid a fine of Rp 13 million and now wonders what happened to the extra Rp 1 million.
“It’s my mistake that I overstayed, I didn’t have any problem if I had to pay the fine, but this is too much. I should have only paid Rp 13 million because I overstayed for 13 days, but the officer asked me to pay Rp 14 million,” he said while showing the bill to baliexpress.com on Monday.
The bill showed that he had overstayed 13 days, but Daniel claims that he paid Rp 14 million to the officer.
“He stole my money. How could he ask me to pay Rp 14 million when I should only have paid Rp 13 million. I want justice. I am so disappointed. I love Bali, but why was I treated like this?” he added.
He explained that the problem began when he wanted to depart to Singapore from Bali on July 1, because the fine payment was less than the number of overstay days and the process delayed his departure twice that day. Then he tried again to leave on July 4 and had to pay the Rp 14 million fine. But, when he arrived in Singapore, he realized that the payment that was asked by the officer was different from the bill.
According to immigration, the man canceled leaving Bali after and the immigration officer gave two flight ticket cancellation marks in his passport. Immigration claimed the reason for giving the cancellation mark on the exit stamp was because the person concerned was found recording video using a handphone and Go Pro camera of the officer counting the money.
“The flight staff escorted him to the departure gate. But not long afterwards they brought the man concerned back to the Immigration Office at the Departure Terminal and stated that the passenger was offloaded (missed the flight),” Head of the Ngurah Rai Bali Immigration Office, Amran Aris told reporters yesterday at a press conference convened over the incident.
At that time, the Immigration Officer canceled the departure stamp and he returned the overstay fee Rp. 10 million that had been submitted.
Aris also stated in front of the press that no payment Rp. 14 million was received by the Czech tourist and according to him the money paid by the person concerned is as stated in the receipt.
“The concerned person entered Indonesia on May 23, 2019 using a Free Visit Visa with a validity period of 30 days. The last day he can stay in Indonesia was June 21, 2019,” he said on Tuesday evening.
“The overstay amounted to 13 days according to receipt of payment and proof of PNBP payment. As for information related to paying money of Rp. 14 million, it is not true,” he said.
