Uber is not welcome in Jakarta unless it sets up a proper office in the country and
abides by prevailing public transportation regulations, the governor say. (Reuters
Photo/Charles Platiau)
|
Jakarta.
Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said he would have a meeting with
representatives from California-based ride-sharing app Uber only if the company
promised to set up an office in the country.
“If they
had wanted to meet me [to seek permission] from the beginning, then I would
have done it. But now, if they wish to have a meeting with me, they must
establish a company [here],” Basuki said at City Hall on Friday.
He added
that representatives from the parent company, Uber Technologies, had spoken to
him in person inquiring why they were banned from operating in the city.
Uber’s
Jakarta operations currently run from a rented office space at the Pacific Place
mall in the Sudirman Central Business District, South Jakarta.
Basuki
claimed that Uber reaped profits of up to 20 percent from its operations in the
city but did not pay any tax.
“They are
stealing money in my area,” he said.
Shortly
after its launch in Jakarta last August, Basuki branded Uber “illegal.”
Last week,
the Jakarta Police arrested five drivers using the Uber app after receiving
reports from the city’s transportation agency and the Organization of Land
Transport Operators, or Organda.
The police
said the five drivers would only be questioned as witnesses not as suspects.
The arrests
mark the latest in a series of legal and regulatory speedbumps for Uber
Technologies, which is already facing multiple lawsuits around the globe for
bypassing industry regulations.
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