Telkom owns up to 21 fold hike in peak hour call rates<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): An executive of state telecommunications
\noperator PT Telkom has admitted that the telephone tariff here
\nhas been hiked 21 fold for local long-distance calls made during
\npeak hours as per Feb. 1.<\/p>\n
Doddy Amerudien, vice president for communications of the
\nBandung-based Telkom, told The Jakarta Post on Friday that the
\nhike, implemented under a system which bases tariffs on distance
\nand hour, has been postponed since 1995.<\/p>\n
The system stipulated in ministerial decree No. 104\/1994 was
\nsupposed to be effective on Jan. 1, 1995 all over Indonesia,
\nDoddy said from the West Java capital of Bandung.<\/p>\n
\"However, it's already been implemented in areas across the
\ncountry but excluding Bandung and Jakarta,\" he said, giving no
\nfurther explanation.<\/p>\n
That is why Telkom then finally decided, with the approval of
\nthe government and members of the House of Representatives, to
\nraise the tariff using the new system.<\/p>\n
\"We've promised our investors in New York and London as well
\nas in Indonesia that our rates would be appraised every year ...
\nWe just held back too long,\" Doddy added.<\/p>\n
Telkom is already listed on stock exchanges here and overseas.<\/p>\n
He said Telkom has no plan to cancel the hike following
\ngrowing public protests, unless the government asks the company
\nto do so.<\/p>\n
\"It's really up to the government. But I do think that it
\nwould be unlikely for the government to halt the hike.<\/p>\n
I know many Jakartans are suffering ... but we all are in the
\nsame situation together,\" Doddy said, suggesting customers be
\nmore thrifty in making calls.<\/p>\n
He admitted that Telkom had also been informed of the plan of
\ncertain parties to hold a national boycott of Telkom's monopoly
\nservice.<\/p>\n
\"That's a business risk. We're just implementing the
\ngovernment's new tariff which has been agreed by the House.<\/p>\n
Customers failing to pay their monthly bill will have their
\nlines isolated. Two months in arrears and the lines will be cut
\noff,\" Doddy said.<\/p>\n
The new tariff was abruptly announced by Telkom on Jan. 30
\nunder a decree issued by the communications minister a day
\nearlier.<\/p>\n
It said that beginning Feb. 1 Telkom would raise its rates for
\ndomestic long-distance calls by 28.57 percent to Rp 144 per
\npulse, local calls by 24.14 percent to Rp 180 per pulse and
\ntelephone magnetic card service calls by 46.67 percent to Rp 220
\nper pulse.<\/p>\n
The rates for coin-operated public telephones remain Rp 100
\nper pulse, but one pulse has been extended from 2.5 minutes to
\nthree minutes.<\/p>\n
One pulse lasts from seven seconds up to three minutes
\ndepending on the distance of the call and the time the call is
\nmade.<\/p>\n
But what has made many Jakartans angry is that Telkom is to
\ncharge them on the basis of distance and hours of calls.<\/p>\n
For example, a customer in Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta
\ncalling his business partner in Karawaci, Tangerang, used to pay
\nRp 145 per two-minute midday call.<\/p>\n
Many thought that under the new tariff the customer will be
\ncharged Rp 180, a 24 percent hike as Telkom had announced.<\/p>\n
According to the new system, the Kelapa Gading customer would
\nnow have to pay Rp 3,085 for the two-minute talk, which is a
\n21.27 fold increase. (see table on page 3)<\/p>\n
From Jakarta, Joko Dewoto, head of systems and marketing
\npolicy affairs of Telkom's Jakarta office, said that his office
\nhas had no time to disseminate the \"new system\" to the local
\ncustomers.<\/p>\n
\"Jakarta's Telkom executives only knew of the implementation
\nof the new tariff on Jan. 29,\" he told the Post.<\/p>\n
\"We then immediately got busy as we had to hastily change the
\ntariff rates on the central system.\"<\/p>\n
A customer, Alam of East Jakarta, questioned Telkom's motives
\nfor being unwilling to publicly reveal the new tariff system.<\/p>\n
\"Small people like me are totally blind to that system and
\ncalculation,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"How can Telkom shock us like this?\"<\/p>\n
\"Are they trying to tell us that just because the government
\nhas no money, Telkom then has the right to bleed us dry?\" Alam
\nasked.<\/p>\n
City councilor Saud Rachman urged the government to
\nimmediately review the hike.<\/p>\n
\"The government cannot damage the economy of Jakartans... they
\nknow that phones are a daily necessity. The government must be
\nwise enough to review these rates.\" (ylt)<\/p>",
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