Indonesia wants ₹5,400 for your Bali visa. Today it is ₹2,700.

Indonesia's immigration service wants to double what an Indian passport holder pays to get into Bali. On 12 August the Director General of Immigration, Hendarsam Marantoko, told a press conference in Jakarta that the visa on arrival should rise from Rp 500,000 to Rp 1 million, with a cheaper Rp 750,000 rate for anyone who applies online before flying.

Five weeks on there is still no regulation. No tariff amendment, no effective date, nothing on the immigration portal. What you pay at Ngurah Rai this week is Rp 500,000, about ₹2,700, exactly what it was in January. The announcement is real and the fee is not, and the space between those two things is where your booking sits.

The proposal splits one fee into two

Today the price is flat. Apply online for the e-VOA before you fly, or queue at the counter in the arrival hall, and either way it is Rp 500,000. Marantoko's plan ends that. The online rate would be Rp 750,000, roughly ₹4,050. The counter rate would be Rp 1 million, about ₹5,400. The increase is therefore ₹1,350 a head if you plan ahead, and ₹2,700 a head if you do not.

He gave two reasons at the briefing. One was the exchange rate, which he said had left Rp 500,000 short of what the service is worth. The other was the queue. The Star reported him asking what the point of the online discount was and answering himself: "To prevent congestion upon arrival at the airport." Indonesia Expat reported the same figures from the same session.

Indians have been able to use the e-VOA since 6 April 2022, so the cheaper tier would be open to you. The visa buys 30 days. You can extend it once, for another 30 days, for another Rp 500,000, and immigration will want you at an office in person for a photo.

What this does to a family of four

Do the arithmetic before arguing about whether it is fair. At roughly 185 rupiah to the rupee this week, four visas today cost Rp 2 million, about ₹10,800. Under the proposal, bought online, they cost Rp 3 million, about ₹16,200. Bought at the counter because nobody got around to it, Rp 4 million, about ₹21,600.

Then add the Bali tourist levy, which already exists and which people keep forgetting. It is Rp 150,000 per person, about ₹810, imposed under Bali Province Regional Regulation No. 6 of 2023 and paid through the provincial Love Bali system. Children are not listed as exempt. For four people that is Rp 600,000, about ₹3,240.

So a family of four landing in Denpasar pays around ₹14,050 in government charges today, before a single taxi. If the proposal goes through and you buy online, about ₹19,460. If you wait for the counter, about ₹24,860. On a six-day trip that is the difference between one good dinner and three.

The arrival hall is the point of the pricing

The two-tier structure is not really about revenue. It is about emptying the payment queue, and that queue is the first of three you hit. You pay for the visa, then you queue for immigration, then your levy voucher gets checked, then you walk out and start arranging a car.

Buying the visa online removes the first of those now, before any fee change, at no extra cost. That is worth doing this week whatever the regulation eventually says.

The last one is worth removing too. A prepaid car meets you inside and the negotiation never happens.

At about ₹1,837 the general hotel transfer covers most of the island and is the one to book for Seminyak, Canggu or Ubud. The Nusa Dua run is cheaper at around ₹1,325 because Nusa Dua is the closest resort strip to the airport. If you are not staying there, do not book it to save ₹500.

Three payments, three different systems

The confusion around Bali entry is that three separate things are due and none of them talks to the others.

• The visa. Rp 500,000 today, online or on arrival, 30 days, one extension possible. This is the one under discussion.
• The Bali tourist levy. Rp 150,000 per person, paid through Love Bali, cashless only. A QR voucher arrives by email. Save it offline.
• The All Indonesia Arrival Card. Mandatory since 1 October 2025 for everyone arriving, Indonesians included. It folds the immigration, customs, health and quarantine declarations into one form, and you can fill it up to three days before you land.

Only the first is changing. The other two catch people out every week regardless.

What the increase would buy you instead

₹1,350 a head will not cancel anyone's trip, and it helps to know what that maps to on the ground.

Those three together come to about ₹1,285, less than the online increase and well under the counter one. The Jimbaran seafood dinner at around ₹392 is the best value here and the one to book for a first night. Toya Devasya at about ₹452 is a hot spring complex on Lake Batur and works as a morning stop on a Kintamani day. The Bird Park at roughly ₹440 earns its place only if you have children.

What to do about it

• Apply for the e-VOA before you fly, on the official portal at evisa.imigrasi.go.id. It costs the same as the counter today and saves you a queue. If the two tiers arrive, it saves you ₹1,350 a head as well.
• Pay the Love Bali levy online and download the voucher rather than screenshotting the confirmation page.
• Fill the All Indonesia Arrival Card in the three days before departure, not in the aisle after landing.
• Travelling before the end of the year? Do not rebuild your budget around a fee nobody has signed. Planning for mid-2027? Add ₹1,350 a head and be pleased if it never lands.
• Check the fee on the official portal in the week you apply. That page, not a news report, is what you will be charged.

What is still unclear

Almost everything procedural. No regulation has been published, no effective date given, and the amounts could move before anything is signed. Marantoko announced a plan at a press briefing, which is not a tariff.

It is also unclear whether the Rp 500,000 extension fee rises with the main one, which matters if you were planning a long stay, and whether the online and counter rates survive as two numbers at all. The split is the part doing the policy work and also the part most likely to cause arguments at the counter.

There is a reason to think this will not be rushed. Indonesia is chasing this market hard. On 10 July the Tourism Ministry spokesperson Nia Niscaya said the country was targeting 750,000 to 820,000 Indian visitors in 2026, against 734,490 arrivals in 2025, and that the pitch now runs to Yogyakarta, Lombok, Labuan Bajo and Lake Toba rather than Bali alone. Doubling the entry fee for a growth market in the middle of that has an argument against it somewhere inside the same government.

An announcement is not a rule. Until a tariff is published the only number that binds anyone is Rp 500,000, and the only sensible move is the one that was already correct: buy the visa before you get on the plane.

Book what you were going to book. Just do the paperwork from your sofa in Mumbai rather than at a counter in Denpasar with your bags at your feet, which is advice that holds whatever the regulation finally says.