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Nomads & Communities
6JUN

State bank BTN explores Bali levy payments

2 min read
12:31UTC

Bank Tabungan Negara signed a memorandum with the Bali Tourism Board to explore digital collection of the island's foreign-visitor levy. Only about a third of foreign visitors paid it in 2025.

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SocietyDeveloping
Key takeaway

BTN is exploring digital collection of Bali's foreign-visitor levy that about a third of visitors paid in 2025.

State lender Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) said on 9 October it had signed a memorandum with the Bali Tourism Board. The memorandum explores digital collection of Bali's foreign-visitor levy. The levy is Rp150,000 (about US$8) per visitor⁠1.

The province moved collection to airline check-in in August, after its tourism office reported arrivals outpacing levy payments. The same Antara report puts the levy's 2025 take at Rp369bn, paid by 35.4% of nearly 7 million foreign visitors⁠2.

The levy raised Rp235bn in January to August 2026, which implies about 1.57 million paid levies, against about 2.46 million in all of 2025, on Lowdown's arithmetic.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Since 2024 the Indonesian island of Bali has charged each foreign tourist Rp150,000, about US$8, to fund culture and environmental protection. Visitors are meant to pay online or on arrival. Most do not. In 2025 only about a third of foreign visitors paid, according to the state news agency Antara. Bali has been trying new ways to collect. In August it asked airlines to collect the levy at check-in. Now a state-owned bank, Bank Tabungan Negara, is exploring digital levy payments.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Bali's levy is a provincial charge under a regional regulation, but the airport and the immigration desk belong to the national government. The province cannot refuse entry to a visitor who has not paid, so it has to persuade visitors and carriers rather than compel them.

Airline collection depends on each carrier changing its ticketing systems for one province's charge, and many international carriers serve Bali through hubs that sell tickets far from Indonesia. That leaves gaps no provincial memorandum can close.

A bank channel could help visitors who want to pay, but the 2025 outturn shows most did not, and nothing in the BTN deal changes the incentive for those who choose not to.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    Extra payment channels may lift compliance slightly but are unlikely to close most of the gap without a checkpoint at entry.

  • Opportunity

    Other Bali regencies may copy Klungkung's single-gate model at popular sites to collect their own charges.

Sources:Antara
Mentions:Indonesia →Wayan Koster →Klungkung Regency →Galápagos →Thailand →Nusa Penida →Bali Tourism Board →Bank Tabungan Negara →PWA →Bali →
First Reported In

Update #15 · Spain prices the owner, not the listing

Antara· 22 Oct 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
Caused by
Bali hands levy collection to airlines
A bank payment channel followed the shift of levy collection to airlines.
Occurred 13 Aug 2026
Read story →
This Event
State bank BTN explores Bali levy payments
Bali is adding collection channels for a levy that most foreign visitors did not pay last year.
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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.