Bus, taxi and air fares increased
Bus, taxi and air fares increased
JAKARTA (JP): The government yesterday announced fare hikes, to be effective today, for domestic land, sea and air transportation of between 9.2 and 66.7 percent.
Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto, who announced the fare hikes after a cabinet meeting on economy at the Bina Graha presidential office here yesterday, said the new fares were set in light of the fact that current fares were below operational costs.
The current fares, he said, were unable to cover the increases in prices of vehicles, fuel, spare parts, employees' salaries and other price components. The new fares will be effective today.
Haryanto said that if the fares were not increased, the situation would disturb transportation services.According to the new ruling -- which has not been enforced yet by a government decree -- the lowest fare hike, 9.2 percent, will be for the economy class of passenger ferries serving routes with a total trip of between 10.1 and 20 miles.
Fares for such ferry service will increase from Rp 105.32 (4.5 U.S. cents) to Rp 115 per passenger per mile.
The highest hike, 66.7 percent, will be for the flagfall of taxis. From the previous rate of Rp 900, the flagfall will increase to Rp 1,500 and for every next kilometer, the fare will become Rp 550 per km, up by 22.2 percent from Rp 450 per km.
Waiting charges for taxis will also go up by 33.3 percent from Rp 4,500 to Rp 6,000 per hour.
However, fares for students riding city buses will remain at Rp 100.
Haryanto said fares for air-conditioned buses were not regulated by the government so it was up to their operators whether or not to increase their fares. Fares for air-conditioned buses are currently Rp 1,300 per passenger.
Explaining about the airfare hikes which are also given in U.S. dollars, Haryanto said the fares will be calculated automatically every six months to see their fluctuation against the dollar.
A statement from the Ministry of Transportation yesterday said that the fare hikes were intended to ensure that the fares were commensurate with the level of service provided.
Fares for economy-class passenger transportation were set between four and six years ago and have not been increased since then.
Before today's increase, city bus, taxi and train fares hadn't changed since 1991, and fares of inter-city bus, passenger ferries, domestic passenger ships and domestic scheduled flights had not increased since 1993.
According to the statement, the fare hike in 1993 was carried out to meet higher oil and fuel prices, but did not take into account other price components.
Operational costs of transportation providers have, over the last five years, increased due to inflation, changes in foreign exchange rates, hikes in the salaries of employees of transportation companies, increments in vehicle maintenance costs and higher prices of fuel and oil, vehicles, spare parts and electricity.
Inflation in 1991 reached 9.5 percent, in 1992 4.9 percent, in 1993 9.7 percent, in 1994 9.2 percent and in 1995 9.28 percent.
Exchange rates for the U.S. dollar in 1992 was Rp 2,023; in 1993 Rp 2,081, in 1994 Rp 2,142 and in 1995 Rp 2,310.
Aircraft fuel increased by 5 percent in 1993 while gasoline and diesel went up by 27.3 percent.
Prices of various public transportation vehicles between 1993 and 1995 increased by an average of 17.8 percent, while prices of spare parts went up by 15 percent a year.
Employees' salaries also increased by an average of 10 percent a year and maintenance costs by 15 percent a year.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Aburizal Bakrie felt the fare hike will not have a significant impact on the price of goods.
"A 20 percent increase in transportation fares will bring up the price of goods by 1 percent. So this will not increase the price of goods substantially -- at least not at the rate of the transportation hikes," he said. (pwn/kod)
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