The 7-day visa on arrival costing $US10, automatically granted tomost tourists, has been replaced by the $US25 visa valid for 30 days, and renewable for a further 30 days.

Media reports from Indonesia suggests even the government bureaucracy is still arguing about the wisdom of the new visa fees.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Director General of Tourism Destination Development, Firmansyah Hakim, was quoted by The Jakarta Globe criticising the increased rate.

"I am worried the regulation would affect foreign tourists who make frequent short stays,’’ he told the Globe. "We are going to ask the immigration department to sit down with us and hopefully we can come up with a solution.

Nevertheless, Firmansyah was trying to put a positive spin on the initative.

"We hope this policy will extend tourists’ stays in Indonesia, giving them a chance to visit more places in the country," he said. "The policy will also simplify the supervision of overstaying foreign tourists because there is only one visa option."

According to Bali Update, some officials have depicted the new policy as a means to combat corruption within Indonesia’s immigration department. In 2009, immigration officials at Denpasar Airport were caught embezzling three billion rupiah (US$300,000) in fees obtained illegally through misreporting of 7-day and 30-day visa fees.

Bali Update says some tourism officials are unhappy that tourists are not automatically given a 60-day visa on arrival, removing the need for any renewal process and the still-unclear cost of extending the original visa.