Council nods on 20% fare cut

Fri, 01/23/2009 4:03 PM, The Jakarta Post 

After a week of a debacle over the reduction of public transportation fares following the recent fuel price cuts, the City Council finally approved Thursday a cut of Rp 500 or 20 percent, for minivan and regular bus fares. 

Once the reduction is enacted, the fares will be the same as before the fuel price hikes in May last year. “Fares for limited-seat and economy-class buses will be reduced to Rp 2,000 [from current Rp 2,500], while fares for minivans will be axed to Rp 2,500 [from Rp 3,000],” council’s deputy speaker Dani Anwar said. 

Dani said the decision was final since it had been agreed upon by the council during the meeting of council leaders on Thursday. 

“The decision is also in line with the recommendation made by the City Transportation Council that represents relevant parties, including public transport operators and the administration,” he said.

The transportation council had earlier recommended a cut of Rp 500. 

According to Dani, the council would submit the decree to Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, who is expected to immediately enact the new tariff. 

He said the public transport operators should comply with the new tariff because those operators had been involved in the discussion before the council made its decision.  

Governor Fauzi Bowo said that his administration would announce the cut on Friday. 

The cut, however, is higher than the administration’s proposal of 10,33 percent, or between Rp 200 and Rp 400. The Jakarta chapter of the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) said earlier that it would go along with the administration’s plan, but would oppose higher cuts, stating that public transport operators are coping with soaring expenses. 

Organda secretary TR Panjaitan said that his organization would reject the new tariff. 

“Should the governor impose the new fare cuts, we will go on strike,” he said. 

Separately, transportation experts from the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) called on the administration to draw up a standard formula to calculate all public transportation fares, in order to provide certainty to all parties and avoid unnecessary disputes. 

“There should be a standard mechanism to determine public transportation tariffs, so that the administration and the operators could easily adjust the tariff without getting involved in lengthy debates,” said MTI member Harya Setyaka. 

He urged the government to overhaul the land transportation system in the city for the sake of better services to passengers, saying that the current system of transportation was unmanageable. 

“Among the problems to address are inefficient bus routes, unaccountable ticketing systems and illegal fees”, he said.  

Citing the Transjakarta busway, Harya suggested the administration adapt a similar system for managing all the other regular bus services in the city.