Indonesia’s Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DJBC) announced on 15 September 2026 that officers at Kualanamu, Soekarno-Hatta, I Gusti Ngurah Rai and Sam Ratulangi international airports stopped more than 29 kg of gold and suspected gold from leaving the country between 5 and 14 September. Cast bars made up the two largest lots, 10,053 g on two passengers bound for Hong Kong at Soekarno-Hatta and 10,418.3 g strapped to a passenger at I Gusti Ngurah Rai; the rest was 5,721 g of suspected gold powder and 1,361 g of jewellery on flights to Singapore and Guangzhou from Sam Ratulangi, and 1,522 g of metal hidden in electronics on a Bangkok flight from Kualanamu. DJBC values the metal at Rp73.3 billion, puts the state revenue at stake at Rp8.5 billion and ties the enforcement to the export duty on gold under Minister of Finance Regulation (PMK) 80/2025. DJBC describes the Soekarno-Hatta case as part of a recurring pattern of foreign nationals flying to Hong Kong with tape-wrapped bars in cabin baggage and backpacks.
DJBC’s May 2026 Warta Bea Cukai lists what its Soekarno-Hatta office checks when a traveller exports gold: an export notification (PEB) with invoice, packing list and any required permits, matched against the passport, the boarding pass and the metal. The exporter self-assesses the HS classification on the PEB, officers can reclassify it and issue a duty assessment (SPPBK), and the duty is paid through the electronic billing system before the goods leave. PMK 80/2025 sets the duty ad valorem by form, with separate rates for doré, granules, cast bars and minted bars that are generally lower the more refined the product, and a rate column selected by a reference price the Ministry of Trade sets periodically from LBMA prices. DJBC tests gold content against the tariff’s purity thresholds with portable XRF or laboratory samples. Passenger, crew and courier exports are exempt only up to an export customs value of Rp2.5 million. For bars that leave Indonesia, the PEB and the paid billing are the customs record of the exit, and metal carried out as in these five cases has neither. The release cites Article 102A of Law 17/2006 on Customs as the penal provision where the elements of a customs offence are met. In the same Warta Bea Cukai issue, the Soekarno-Hatta office names its two main challenges against illegal gold exports: travellers who do not report the gold they carry, and exporters shifting HS codes to avoid physical inspection and duty.
The release covers five seizures and their investigation, which DJBC runs in coordination with the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency and the Attorney General’s Office; the duty rates sit in the annex to PMK 80/2025 and the reference price in periodic Ministry of Trade decisions.