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The tax office on Thursday sought to allay fears of a crackdown on air and sea travelers following rumors that baggage checks would be dramatically stepped up to enforce a new regulation limiting tax-free purchases overseas.

“Customs at the airports or seaports will proceed as usual. It’s impossible to go checking baggage one by one as it would jam the ports,” said Evi Suhartantyo, a spokesman for the Custom and Excise Directorate General.

Rumor mills in the capital have been busy churning out chatter that, under a new law passed in October, purchases in excess of $250 per person made abroad would be taxed on arrival and that customs officials had begun to enforce it, imposing strict baggage checks on returning citizens.

Under the alleged new rule, citizens and permanent residents returning from overseas must pay taxes on purchases if they spend more than $250 a person or $1,000 a family.

“Those are old rules that have been in place for more than 20 years now,” Evi said.

He said the old ruling was incorporated into a new regulation issued late in October by the Finance Ministry. The new regulation, which will be enforced beginning on Jan. 1, primarily takes the form of a simpler Custom Declaration form.

“We have received complaints that our CD is complicated. So we cut the size, reduced the questions to just 11 from 15 and provided separate forms for Bahasa Indonesia and English,” he said.

The new regulation also requires travelers to declare cash, checks or other forms of payment with a value exceeding Rp 100 million ($11,100).

Evi said there have been no instructions for custom officials to check all baggage in detail. “Customs will only look for suspicious baggage. We can see that through X-rays,” he said.

“Let’s say that a passenger brings a lot of shoes in different sizes. They must want to resell them for a profit.”

Import taxes would be levied on goods found in excess of the ceiling value, he said.

“If you can afford to shop abroad,” he said, “couldn’t you afford to shop in this country?”

With the country recording strong economic growth, more Indonesians are traveling overseas. Those numbers are expected to increase after Jan. 1, once the government waives the punitive Rp 2.5 million exit tax on citizens and residents without valid tax identification cards.

Rudiana, deputy chairman of the Association of Indonesian Airline Ticket Agents (Astindo), said a strict baggage search appeared unlikely.

“Our airports are hardly able to contain passengers during peak season, so I cannot imagine if this regulation is going to be implemented starting next year,” he said.

Such a policy would harm the country’s image, he said, noting that while other countries were moving forward by decreasing trade and duty barriers, Indonesia was moving backwards. He felt X-ray scans were enough.

Herna P. Danuningrat, chairman of the Association of Indonesia Tour and Travel Agencies (Asita) for Jakarta echoed Rudiana, saying, “If Indonesia wants to implement this now, it’s going to be a step back.”