Council demands action against Secure Parking<\/p>\n
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Councillors demanded on Friday that Governor Sutiyoso immediately
\ntake firm action against Secure Parking, the city's largest off-
\nstreet parking operator, for refusing to cancel its arbitrary
\nrate increase.<\/p>\n
They said the governor should issue a warning to force the
\ncompany to reinstate the old parking rates, otherwise it should
\nbe closed down.<\/p>\n
Koeswadi Soesilohardjo, spokesman for the council's Commission
\nD on development affairs, said that if the parking operator
\ncontinued with the new fees, his commission would recommend
\nsanctions against it.<\/p>\n
A formal recommendation is to be made for Sutiyoso to produce
\nthe first warning letter demanding that Secure Parking cancel the
\nincrease within seven days.<\/p>\n
If the operator was still unresponsive, a second letter should
\nbe issued giving three days more to comply with the demand,
\nKoeswadi said.<\/p>\n
If the company still remained defiant, the governor should
\nissue a final warning with a one-day deadline before the
\nadministration shut it down, he added, arguing that these
\nprocedures were in accordance with Gubernatorial Decree No.
\n1698\/1999.<\/p>\n
Secure Parking general manager Tony Tjuatja promised at a
\nrecent hearing with the City Council that his company would
\ncancel the parking rate hike on Tuesday. But he did not keep the
\npromise.<\/p>\n
The council had demanded parking operators of private
\nbuildings across Jakarta to revoke their decision to raise
\nparking rates by up to 100 percent.<\/p>\n
Tony argued that the new prices were set by the owners of
\nbuildings in order to cover maintenance costs for the lots.<\/p>\n
Company spokesperson Jani Ana Septa Hardiwinangoen echoed
\nTony's statement, saying, "The rate increase is the decision of
\nthe association. We are just the operator. We raised the rates
\nunilaterally because it is what the owners of the buildings
\nwanted."<\/p>\n
She said the 100 percent increase in the rates followed the
\nmarket mechanism and the increased tax for parking operators.<\/p>\n
The increase was made effective on June 9, but without any
\nofficial approval from either the city administration or the
\nlegislature, which prompted the council to declare it illegal.<\/p>\n
The council has also threatened to push for a lawsuit against
\nSecure Parking.<\/p>\n
The arbitrary increase has violated Gubernatorial Decree No.
\n1698\/1999, which sets parking rates across the capital at Rp
\n1,000 per hour for cars and Rp 500 for motorcycles.<\/p>\n
It has also breached a number of other regulations, including
\nBylaw No. 5\/1999 and Bylaw No. 20\/1997, which state that any
\nincrease in parking rates must be approved by both the City
\nCouncil and the governor.<\/p>\n
However, Governor Sutiyoso said he did not have the power to
\nforce the private parking operators to cancel the rate increase,
\narguing that the rates were determined by market mechanisms.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/council-demands-action-against-secure-parking-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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