Balai Pustaka not to raise book prices, says official

JAKARTA (JP): Despite soaring paper prices, the state-owned publisher Balai Pustaka has no intention of increasing text book prices for the upcoming academic year, its top executive said yesterday.

Balai Pustaka president director Wahyudi Ruwiyanto said a total of 10 million books for elementary and high schools will be sold for between Rp 5,000 and Rp 10,000 each.

"I personally assumed that book prices would be raised so that the company would not lose money, but after thorough calculations, we concluded that the old prices could be maintained," he said.

He added that the devastating economic crisis would not cause the company to forget its commitment to providing textbooks at affordable prices to most citizens.

Balai Pustaka's promise was the latest move to soothe poor parents' worries that schooling will become more expensive, as there has been no sign the economic crisis subsiding.

Recently, Minister of Education and Culture Juwono Sudarsono said parents would be exempt from admission fees and new uniforms would not be compulsory.

Balai Pustaka, which has been granted the monopoly in providing textbooks for public schools, has cut distribution costs and improved efficiency to survive the crisis, according to Wahyudi.

Wahyudi admitted that the textbooks to be released for this school year, starting July 20, were old stock.

He said preliminary talks had also been initiated with three major paper producers, Letjes, Padalarang and Indah Kiat for the provision of the 1999/2000 school year.

Private publishers, which bear the heavy brunt of the economic calamity, have demanded that the government drop its policy of granting Balai Pustaka the school textbook monopoly.

"We still supply the compulsory books for most schools as ordered by the Ministry of Education and Culture," Wahyudi said, adding that Balai Pustaka had no right to make every school use its books.

"I know some teachers use textbooks printed by other publishers because they get a commission from the distributors," Wahyudi said at a media briefing.

He added if Balai Pustaka's monopoly were scrapped, it had the ability to compete with private publishers because it had more than two decades of experience in publishing textbooks.

"The government has the right (to maintain or drop the monopoly) but surely 22 years of experience makes us able to compete."

Balai Pustaka started working with the Ministry of Education and Culture to supply school textbooks in 1976. The company supplied books to state-run schools. (emf)