Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Airport police announced Tuesday they had arrested 13 employees of Adam Air low-cost airline and an employee of airport operator PT Angkasa Pura for allegedly manipulating passenger data for their own gain.
The practice is believed to have been going on since August.
"We have questioned 43 airline employees. Thirteen of them have been named suspects and consequently detained," Soekarno-Hatta Airport Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Guntur Setyanto said.
The preliminary questioning of the suspects revealed how they worked, police said.
The suspects changed the status of passengers in the check-in counter computer database from regular to transit.
"They altered passenger information in order to increase the total number of transit passengers.
"On paper, this caused a reduction in the total amount of air passenger duty collected. The duty is payable according to how many passengers are departing the country. This allowed Adam Air employees to get away with depositing less with the airport operator," officer Guntur said.
Air passenger duty is levied by the government and collected by the carrier issuing the ticket.
Guntur said the money made from the illegal venture was split between the airline employees and a PT Angkasa Pura employee in the passenger service charge section.
The only female suspect, Lia, said she had no idea she was involved in a criminal activity.
The check-in counter attendant said she had been asked by her supervisor to change the passenger data and later received a sum of money.
"I thought the money was a bonus from my supervisor," she said, adding that she would never knowingly participate in a crime.
Police seized a number of passenger tickets, passenger lists and a computer from the check-in counter.
The suspects have been charged under Article 372 of the Criminal Code on embezzlement, which carries a maximum punishment of five years' jail.
Police suspect other airlines operating at the airport might be involved in similar activities and plan to investigate their data-collection systems.
"We will not stop here. Our investigators are looking into the activities of other airlines because we believe there must be a strong network among airline employees to have given them the confidence to do this," Guntur said.
However, police have yet to calculate the potential loss of airport tax revenue to the state.
"We cannot put a figure on it until we have processed identification data on passengers against the data entered in the system. We have to dig deeper," he said.
He said the duty on flights was Rp 30,000.
"It's been going on since August and possibly even before that. If they collected Rp 30,000 from even 50 passengers a day, you can imagine how much money they made."
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