Angkot fares to rise, bus fares remain the same

JAKARTA (JP): The city's Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) agreed to the increase in fares of public transportation vans (angkot) but it said the bus fares should remain the same.

The organization's chairman Aip Syaifuddin told reporters after meeting Governor Sutiyoso on Monday that his organization proposed a fare increase of 15 percent for angkot fares or an addition of between Rp 100 to Rp 300 from the current fares.

"We let the angkot drivers raise their fares but the increase should be paid voluntarily. They could not force people to pay the increased fare," he said.

The city administration and the city council separately gave the nod to the increase, but said that the exact amount of the increase would be further discussed.

Aip said that Organda temporarily prohibited public bus operators from increasing their fares since they would receive compensation from the central government.

He said a large bus, which needs an average of 120 liters of diesel fuel a day, would receive a compensation of Rp 300 for each liter or Rp 36,000 (about US$3) a day.

A medium bus, which uses an average of 80 liters of diesel fuel a day, would get a compensation of Rp 300 for each liter or Rp 24,000 a day, he said.

"The compensation would be given for a period of six months. I don't know after six months whether we would increase the fares or not," Aip said.

He urged the Ministry of Communications to immediately disburse the compensation as the bus operators are currently suffering from the fuel price hike.

Several bus drivers have already imposed their own fare increase. Some of them increased the fare from Rp 700 to Rp 900 soon after the government announced the fuel price hike.

The government announced on Friday that it would give compensation to the amount of Rp 216.4 billion to public transportation operators in view of the rise in fuel prices.

Among public transportation vehicles which will receive the subsidy are city buses and trains, excluding angkot.

On Saturday, the government increased the price of diesel fuel to Rp 900 a liter from Rp 600. Most of the city's 7,000 buses use diesel fuel.

Aip said although the fuel price was only 9.8 percent of the van's operational cost, the fuel price hike could significantly affect them, especially because it would likely be followed by an increase in the price of spare parts.

"I received a report that the price of tires increased by 10 percent today. So we hope that the van fare increase could be approved soon," he said.

Angkot fares are currently between Rp 500 (short destination) and Rp 1,200 (a maximum of 14 kilometers).

Organda's proposal to increase angkot fares was granted by city administration and city council, in view of the fact that the vehicles received no subsidy from the government as a result of the fuel price hike.

City spokesman Muhayat said on Monday that the administration agreed to increase the fares, but it was still considering the amount of the rise.

"We should also discuss the planned increase with the city council. We don't want to be criticized by the council for increasing the fares without consulting them," he remarked.

Separately, chairman of the council's Commission C for budgetary and financial affairs Amarullah Asbah viewed that an increase in angkot fares was unavoidable.

"However, the increase should not be too high. We will discuss the amount of the increase with Organda soon," Amarullah of Golkar Party said on Monday.

He said the amount of the fare increase should be agreed to by all van operators who were members of Organda.(jun)