Foreigners’marriages provide significant revenue
Written by Writer on Saturday, October 25th, 2008
Foreigners’marriages provide significant revenue
Wasti Atmodjo , Contributor , Denpasar | Fri, 10/24/2008 1:45 PM | Bali
The island’s romantic beaches, idyllic natural landscapes and surreal culture convinces many foreign couples to end to their holidays by making a nuptial vow at one of Bali’s most memorable spots.
The increasing number of foreigners conducting marriage ceremonies on the island is not only good for the island’s recently promoted image as a honeymoon destination but as a coffer.
As the number of foreigners announcing their wedding vows increases, so does the revenue received by the region. Under existing regulations, foreign couples wanting to register their marriages and acquire marriage certificates in Indonesia incur a much higher fee than locals.
The fee for Indonesian citizens is Rp 35,000 (US$3.70), plus an additional Rp 8,000 if the couple wants to have the certificate laminated. For foreign couples, the fee is Rp 200,000.
A senior official at the Denpasar’s Civil Registry Agency revealed Tuesday that the agency received between 50 and 100 requests for such services from foreign couples each month.
“The requests come from all foreign couples or mixed couples, in which one of the spouses is an Indonesian citizen,” Suastama said.
Suastama heads the agency’s division responsible for registering the marriages.
“On a very special day, the number of couples asking for marriage certificates increases significantly. On Aug. 8, 2008, Suastama said, the agency received requests from as many as 40 couples. It seemed that those couples viewed the date, which contain three eights, as very auspicious and rare,”he said.
“We were so overwhelmed by the requests that day that we asked some of the couples to register their marriages at the Gianyar’s and Badung’s civil registry agencies,” he said.
“The agency deals only with the marriages involving non-Muslim couples,” he said, adding that the Muslim marriages were handled by the Office of Religious Affairs (KUA).
Agency head Made Kusuma Putra said the fees generated from registering the foreign couples’ marriages and issuing marriage certificates had became a major source of revenue for the region.
“If we manage to provide the service to 600 couples then we generate Rp 120 million,” he said.
He added that the Denpasar’s Civil Registry Agency’s jurisdiction was not limited to the Denpasar municipality but also covered marriages in other regencies.
“We frequently provide our services to foreign couples getting married in Kuta, Nusa Dua and Ubud,” he said.
To increase the quality of the agency’s services, Kusuma Putra said he regularly supervised the works of the agency’s 15 staffers.
“The aim is to increase the quality of service and minimize mistakes made during the registration and certificate issuance processes,” he said.
“For instance, prior to the issuance of a certificate, the agency makes sure that the required information is both correct and complete,” he said.
“We ensure that the names of the couple are written correctly. Mistyping even a single letter in the names is enough to be categorized as a grave error.”
“The agency has never received any complaints from couples,”he said.
Kusuma Putra said he also made sure officials assigned to a wedding ceremony arrived at the scene on time and were able to read the marriage certificate in a clear voice.
For this reason, he asked agency staff members to increase their English language skills and knowledge.
Yulia M Sutarti, a client who recently married a Dutch man, said she was satisfied with the level of services extended by the agency.
“The officials assigned to our wedding worked in a professional manner. They arrived on time at the church where our ceremony took place, and one of them read the marriage certificate with a firm and convincing voice,” she said.
“The agency has allocated a room at its office for couples wanting to get married but not wanting to spend huge amounts of money to finance lavish weddings,” Kusuma Putra said.
“We provide the room free of charge.”
