Wayan Koster
Governor of Bali province.
Wayan Koster, governor of Bali, said on 14 August 2026 that international airlines will announce the province's 150,000-rupiah foreign-visitor levy before landing, moving collection to the departure gate after roughly 43% of foreign arrivals paid this year.
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Wayan Koster is the governor of Bali, the Indonesian island province whose economy rests on foreign tourism. A politician of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), he was first elected governor in 2018 and returned for a second term in the 2024 regional elections.
As governor he heads the provincial government that sets Bali-wide tourism policy, including the foreign-visitor levy introduced in February 2024. The levy is a provincial charge, and its weak point has been collection: immigration staff at the airport cannot compel payment, and the province has no enforcement presence at every point of entry. On 14 August 2026 Koster said airlines would announce the levy before landing, after reporting that roughly 43% of foreign arrivals paid in 2026, up from 35.4% a year earlier.
His tenure also covers the island's wider pressure from long-stay foreigners. In late September 2026 Bali's immigration office deported 18 foreign nationals in a single week, one of them for teaching motorcycle riding on a remote-worker permit.
Koster moves levy collection to airlines
Koster's 14 August 2026 announcement shifts the burden of collecting Bali's 150,000-rupiah foreign-visitor levy from staff on the island to the airlines that fly visitors in. Carriers will announce the charge before landing, so payment is prompted at the departure gate rather than chased after arrival.
The governor gave the numbers behind the change himself. He reported 235bn rupiah collected in 2026 so FAR, from roughly 43% of foreign arrivals, against 35.4% a year earlier. That still leaves more than half of Bali's visitors paying nothing, which is the gap his administration has to close. Enforcement had leaned on immigration officers WHO have no legal power to make a tourist pay a provincial charge, so moving the prompt upstream is his main tool short of a change in national law.
Koster shifts levy collection to airlines
How much of Bali's visitor levy have foreign tourists paid in 2026?
How much has Bali's foreign-visitor levy collected in 2026?
Who is the Governor of Bali?
