No bylaw makes city impotent against parking operators<\/p>\n
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The city administration admitted on Tuesday that it could not
\npunish private parking operators for charging higher parking
\nrates than the city's official one because of an absence of a
\nbylaw on parking rates.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a hearing with the City Council's Commission D for
\ndevelopment affairs, the chief of the City Parking Agency, Yani
\nMulyadi, refused to revoke the operators' permits.<\/p>\n
\"We have no authority to punish operators who charged a higher
\nrate. We are afraid we'll lose again if we are sued by the
\noperators,\" Yani claimed.<\/p>\n
He was responding to the councillors' demand that permits of
\nthe operators, including the largest, PT Secure Parking
\nIndonesia, be revoked.<\/p>\n
Commission D deputy chairman Ali Imron Hussein urged the
\nadministration to take legal action against the private parking
\noperators.<\/p>\n
\"If needed we should revoke their permits. It's sad that the
\nadministration is afraid of private companies,\" Ali of the United
\nDevelopment Party said.<\/p>\n
According to Gubernatorial Decree No. 1698\/1999, the parking
\nrate for a motorcycle is only Rp 500 per hour while for cars it
\nis Rp 1,000 per hour.<\/p>\n
But private parking operators recently increased the rate for
\nmotorcycles to Rp 1,000 per hour and Rp 2,000 per hour with an
\nadditional rate of Rp 1,000 for every hour thereafter.<\/p>\n
Two years ago, the city administration closed parking lots,
\nwhich were managed by the firms, for charging higher parking
\nrates.<\/p>\n
Dissatisfied with the administration's move, the firms filed
\na lawsuit against the administration at the Jakarta
\nAdministrative Court, which ruled that the administration's move
\nwas illegal.<\/p>\n
The court said that the gubernatorial decree could not be used
\nto regulate private parking operators.<\/p>\n
In light of this decision, the administration recently
\nproposed a bylaw on parking rates to the City Council.<\/p>\n
Besides regulating parking rates, the bylaw draft would
\nrequire private operators to pay a parking tax, which amounts to
\nabout 20 percent of their income, to the city administration.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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