A boutique in Jakarta has ordered next season’s handbags from Milan. A collector in Bali has bought a painting in London. A hospital is waiting for an imaging component from Germany. For goods like these the flight is the easy part. What keeps buyers awake is the customs value, the size of the tax bill, and whether the goods arrive complete and undamaged. This page explains how we ship high-value goods into Indonesia: declared in full, quoted as one all-in figure, and checked for permits before they leave.
Boutiques and distributors restocking from European and American brands; galleries, designers and private collectors moving art and design pieces; hospitals and clinics replacing equipment components; hotel and villa projects ordering statement lighting and furniture; and foreign brands selling to Indonesian clients on delivered, duty-paid terms. Their worries are the same: a value dispute at customs, a tax bill nobody budgeted, a permit discovered too late, or a crate that arrives damaged. Each section below deals with one of those.
Bags, shoes, garments and accessories. Some garment, bag and footwear HS codes are restricted and may need a surveyor report or import approval; exotic leathers also need CITES documents.
Small, light and very valuable: declared at full value, packed discreetly and insured on request.
Paintings, sculptures, prints and design objects, in professional crates. Classification depends on what the work is and how it was made.
Architectural and decorative lighting, statement furniture and fittings. Lighting can need SNI or a pre-shipment surveyor report, checked per HS code.
Imaging parts, surgical instruments and diagnostic equipment. A Ministry of Health marketing authorisation held by an Indonesian entity is needed; reviewed per shipment.
Cameras, audio, computing and AV equipment. See electronics import and telecom equipment for SNI, SDPPI and battery rules.
Indonesian customs assesses duty and taxes on the customs value of the goods. When a declared value looks low against the product, customs can request proof of the transaction, reassess the value and add penalties, and the shipment waits while that happens. An undervalued invoice also limits what an insurance claim can recover. For these reasons we declare the real transaction value, explain any discounts on the invoice, and do not split invoices, misdescribe goods or lower values. We decline shipments that ask us to. A correct declaration is the fastest route through customs, and it protects both the buyer and the seller.
For ordinary cargo, freight is the largest cost and a per-kilogram rate makes sense. For high-value goods it is the other way round: import duty, VAT (11% effective) and income tax article 22 are calculated from the customs value, so they usually outweigh the freight. That is why, for high-value shipments, we quote IDX Import DTD DDP as one lump sum covering freight, customs clearance, duty and taxes, and delivery to the address, calculated from the commercial invoice and the HS code of each item rather than from a rate per kilogram.
Under DDP the goods are imported through a registered Indonesian importer of record arranged by us, so the buyer does not need its own import licence for eligible goods. See importer of record in Indonesia and Indonesia import duty and tax. If the buyer has an NIB with import licence and prefers to import itself, we provide IDX Import Port to Port and IDX Customs Clearance instead.
High value does not exempt goods from Indonesia’s restricted goods rules (lartas). Typical checks include SNI or surveyor reports for some lighting and electrical goods, import approvals for some textile, garment, bag and footwear HS codes, BPOM registration for cosmetics and fragrances, a Ministry of Health authorisation for medical devices, CITES for protected species materials, and SDPPI for anything wireless. We review restricted goods per shipment and handle them when the shipment can be made compliant. Background in Indonesian: restricted goods and import permits.
Every shipment is cleared in Jakarta, at Soekarno-Hatta for air or Tanjung Priok for sea. Delivery to Jakarta addresses is part of the DDP quote; delivery to Bali, Surabaya and other cities is quoted per shipment, with the same care for handling and insurance. For hospitality and residential projects see shipping to Bali for villas, hotels and restaurants; for East Java see shipping to Surabaya.
See also: Importer of record · Import duty and tax · Medical device import (ID) · DDP from Europe · DDP from the USA.