Indonesia’s customs service, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (Bea Cukai), publishes its passenger rules in Indonesian only. Choosing English on beacukai.go.id returns the same Indonesian page, so the translations below are ours. Every figure was read on 9 October 2026 on the customs passenger-goods page and checked against the regulations it cites: Minister of Finance Regulation 203/PMK.04/2017 as amended by PMK 34 of 2025 (in force since 6 June 2025), and PMK 82 of 2024 on excise exemptions.
The allowance, figure by figure
| Item | Duty-free per passenger, per arrival |
|---|---|
| Personal goods bought abroad | Up to FOB USD 500 |
| Alcoholic drinks | 1 litre, from age 21 |
| Cigarettes | 200 |
| Cigars | 25 |
| Cut tobacco | 100 grams |
| Other processed tobacco | 100 grams or the equivalent |
| Solid e-cigarettes | 140 sticks or 40 capsules |
| Open-system e-liquid | 30 ml |
| Closed-system e-liquid | 12 ml |
The tobacco and e-cigarette lines apply from age 18 and are alternatives, not a combined basket. If you carry more than one type, the customs page says the exemption is shared between them proportionally.
USD 500 of personal goods, and the bill above it
The exemption covers “barang pribadi Penumpang umum dengan nilai pabean paling banyak USD 500 per orang untuk setiap kedatangan”: a passenger’s personal goods with a customs value of up to USD 500 per person, each arrival. Within that, no import duty, VAT, luxury goods tax or income tax is charged.
Over USD 500, only the excess is taxed. PMK 34 of 2025 sets the duty at 10% on the total value minus USD 500, adds VAT, and excludes income tax.
In the customs FAQ’s family case, two adults and two children each get the exemption “per orang”, per person. It does not say the four allowances can be pooled into USD 2,000, so plan on each person’s bag standing alone.
The allowance covers goods bought abroad that stay in Indonesia. Goods carried for someone else or for sale are not personal goods. The customs FAQ names jastip, the paid personal-shopper trade, as an example. They get no USD 500 exemption, pay a flat 10% duty plus import taxes, and must meet ordinary import rules.
Two customs pages disagree on income tax. The general FAQ at beacukai.go.id/faq still says the excess over USD 500 carries income tax of 0.5% to 10% with an Indonesian tax number, or 1% to 20% without one. The passenger-goods page and PMK 34 of 2025 both exclude income tax on personal goods. The regulation is the later and binding text, so go by it.
Alcohol and tobacco over the limit are destroyed
You cannot pay duty on extra bottles or cartons. Excise goods above the allowance are “langsung dimusnahkan oleh Pejabat Bea dan Cukai dengan atau tanpa disaksikan Penumpang”: destroyed on the spot by a customs officer, whether or not you are there to watch.
The customs page sets the age limits at 21 for alcohol and 18 for tobacco. The excise regulation says only “setiap orang dewasa”, each adult. On either reading, under-age travellers have no alcohol or tobacco allowance.
E-cigarettes are excise goods, so they have their own lines: 30 ml of bottled liquid for an open-system device, or 12 ml in closed pods. The customs page lists no ban.
The declaration sits inside the arrival card
On customs’ electronic declaration site, ecd.beacukai.go.id, air and sea arrivals are sent to All Indonesia, the immigration arrival card at allindonesia.imigrasi.go.id. Land arrivals fill in customs’ own e-CD form. The site also carries two departure forms, one for carrying cash out and one for goods.
The electronic declaration can be filed from two days before arrival, and immigration accepts the arrival card from three days before, so filing in the last two days covers both. The Bali entry requirements checklist covers the card’s other questions.
Declaring unlocks the allowance. The customs IMEI FAQ says to declare personal goods on arrival, through the e-CD, All Indonesia or a customs officer, and that “Jika barang tidak diberitahukan, fasilitas pembebasan tersebut tidak dapat diberikan”: if goods are not declared, the exemption cannot be given.
PMK 34 of 2025 also allows a spoken declaration instead of a written one for some passengers, including anyone over 60 and travellers with disabilities.
What sends you to the red channel
Green-channel passengers are cleared without a physical inspection. The customs page lists what can send you to the red channel instead:
- goods worth more than the duty and excise exemptions
- animals, fish or plants, or products made from them
- narcotics, psychotropic drugs, precursors, medicines, firearms, air guns, bladed weapons, ammunition, explosives, or pornographic objects and publications
- cash or other payment instruments worth IDR 100 million or more
- goods that are not personal goods
- goods brought in temporarily
- goods taken out of Indonesia earlier and declared to customs at the time
- a phone or tablet to be registered for an Indonesian SIM
Officers can also inspect bags declared in the green channel. The page lists medicines but does not say which documents to carry with them or in what quantity.
Phones and tablets: the IMEI rule
A phone bought abroad gets no signal on an Indonesian SIM until its IMEI, the handset’s serial number, is registered. The customs IMEI page says phones, handheld computers and tablets brought from abroad must be registered “agar mendapatkan jaringan bergerak seluler Indonesia”, to get access to Indonesia’s mobile networks.
Most visitors do not need to register. The customs FAQ says registration is not needed if you keep using your home SIM on roaming, or if a foreign tourist registers at a mobile operator’s outlet to use an Indonesian SIM, which gives network access for up to 90 days.
If you stay longer, or use a local SIM without the operator route, register with customs on arrival:
- Declare the device on All Indonesia, then register at the customs counter in the arrival hall, by form on beacukai.go.id or in the Mobile Beacukai app.
- Show the QR code with your passport, boarding pass and an invoice if you have one. A customs officer can also scan the phone and passport if you skipped the form.
- If the system values the device under USD 500, registration is complete. Above that, the excess pays 10% import duty plus VAT, and the device shares the same USD 500 allowance as everything else you carry.
- Registration is free, and the IMEI is promised active within two days. The customs call centre, Bravo Bea Cukai, is on 1500225.
Do it at the airport. Once you leave the terminal, the FAQ allows registration at a customs office for up to 60 days, but without the USD 500 exemption: duty and tax are charged on the device’s full value. If your passport and IMEI were scanned at the airport, you have 5 days to finish at a customs office and keep the exemption. After 60 days, a device can no longer be registered at all.
Cash: IDR 100 million, and a ceiling at IDR 1 billion
Anyone entering or leaving with cash, in rupiah or foreign currency, or with cheques, traveller’s cheques, promissory notes or certificates of deposit worth IDR 100 million or more must declare it to customs. The rule is PMK 157 of 2017 as amended by PMK 100 of 2018.
- Failing to declare costs 10% of the whole amount, up to IDR 300 million.
- Declaring less than you carry costs 10% of the difference, with the same cap.
Foreign banknotes also have a ceiling. Bank Indonesia’s rule, PBI 19/7/PBI/2017 as amended by PBI 20/2/PBI/2018, bars anyone except banks and licensed money changers from carrying foreign banknotes worth IDR 1 billion or more, and those need Bank Indonesia’s approval. All currencies you carry count towards the figure. The penalty is again 10% of the total, up to IDR 300 million.
Taking IDR 100 million or more in rupiah notes out of Indonesia also needs a Bank Indonesia permit, under the same customs regulation.
Prohibited and restricted goods
The customs pages read for this guide carry no passenger list of banned items. The import rules page sorts all goods into three classes:
- Free goods need no permit.
- Restricted goods need a permit from the relevant ministry. The page’s examples are medicines and cosmetics, which need approval from BPOM, the food and drug agency.
- Prohibited goods cannot be imported at all. The page’s examples are waste, used clothing and ozone-depleting substances.
These read as trade rules; the page does not say how the used clothing ban treats the clothes in your own suitcase.
To check a specific item, customs points to the national single window lookup at insw.go.id/intr. A prohibited or restricted item that is declared can be sent back or destroyed under customs supervision. One that is not declared, or declared falsely, becomes state-controlled goods under the Customs Law.
Where the official pages stop
- No customs page read for this guide states a penalty for walking through the green channel with goods over USD 500. The IMEI FAQ says only that undeclared goods lose the exemption.
- Food, plants and animals are also a quarantine matter for a separate agency, the Indonesian Quarantine Authority, whose rules are not covered here.
The visa itself is in the e-VOA fee and stay rules, and Bali’s own tourist levy is in the Bali checklist linked above.