Indonesians want $70 for parcels

Press, 12 July 1980, Page 11

Indonesians want $70 for parcels

Customs duty of more than $7O has been asked by the Indonesian authorities on groups of clothing and food parcels sent by New Zealanders to a small church school. Mrs Dorothy Walker, the missionary in charge of the Selokab Akitab Tawangamang, a Pentecostal school in Solo, told “The Press” by telephone that the Indonesian authorities had given no explanation for the “exorbitant duty 7” demanded. Over the years hundreds of parcels had been sent by well-wishers in New Zealand, but it was only last year that the Indonesian authorities had begun to change duty. Miss June McLennan, of Christchurch has had about 70 parcels returned to her which she had sent to the school in the last 18 months. The New Zealand Post Office said that the Indonesian authorities had returned the parcels because the addressee had refused to pay the customs duties. Mrs Walker said that the mission school simply could not afford to pay the duties. The parcels had arrived in groups of five or six. sometimes 10. Duty of 45,000 to 50.000 rupiahs ($7O to $77) had been asked for each group or parcels. “You have to live in Indonesia to understand — they, do not give any answers, in this country,” Mrs Walker said. When the Indonesian postal authorities at Solo were asked why the duties were imposed, the only

answer given was that the duty had to be paid or the parcels forfeited. The Pentecostal school was high up in the mountains. The clothing and food that had been received had been distributed to the ma'ny churches and Bible schools in the area and to the local village people.

The mission shcool, said Mrs Walker, ahd received no parcel from New Zealand in the last year as it had been unable to pay the duty. She was told at the local post office that at least 8 parcels were waiting to be collected, “but we cannot afford to pay for them,” she said. Each time the school had been asked to pay a

different price for the groups of parcels, “they were always marked with an exorbitant price.” The mission had asked people in New Zealand not to send any more parcels — "it is just not worth it,” Mrs Walker said.

One of the teachers at the school had made unsuccessful inquiries to the authorities in Jakarta. But when they change or make new rides in Indonesia, they make no explanation.” Inquiries by “The Press” to the Indonesian embassy in Wellington have shed no light on the question of why the authorities have started asking for customs duty to be paid.