City administration quietly raises water rates by 30 percent
City administration quietly raises water rates by 30 percent
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In an apparent effort to avert a public outcry, the city
administration quietly raised tap water rates by 30 percent on
the first day of the year.
When asked by reporters at City Hall on Monday about the
supposed deliberation of the increase, Governor Sutiyoso tersely
answered, "The new tap water rates have been effective since Jan.
1."
The decision was formalized in Gubernatorial Decree No.
4164/2003 signed by Sutiyoso on Dec. 31, copies of which were
made public on Monday.
The decree stipulates that all groups of tap water customers
are subject to the increase, including low-income households.
The non-governmental organization Jakarta Water Consumers
Community's (Komparta) legal counsel, JJ Amstrong Sembiring,
blasted the administration's seeming secrecy.
"That's really a bad habit -- quietly making decrees which
have had strong public resistance," he said.
Komparta, which represents more than 1,700 tap water customers
in Central Jakarta, has filed a class action lawsuit at the
Central Jakarta District Court over the April 2003 rate hikes of
40 percent. The court is slated to deliver a ruling on Jan. 15.
The new increase was approved silently by the City Council
during a council speaker's meeting in late November, a few days
before the Idul Fitri holiday on Nov. 25 and 26.
However, City Hall spokesman Muhayat denied the increase was
made in secret.
"The proposed increase was made public a while back," he told
The Jakarta Post.
Muhayat passed on the responsibility to announce the rate hike
to city tap water operator PD PAM Jaya.
"Please, ask PAM Jaya to comment on why they have yet to
announce the hike," he said.
PAM Jaya's president director Hariyadi Priyohutomo could not
be reached for comment.
Amstrong also lamented that the increase was simply neglecting
the fact that public's purchasing power is low, while PAM Jaya
and its two international partners PT Thames PAM Jaya (TPJ) and
PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) had not significantly improved
their services.
"Those operators may increase the rates on condition that they
managed to improve their services and efficiency, while curbing
water leakages that the customers have suffered all this time."
The City Water Regulatory Body said earlier that 17 percent of
the 30 percent hike would be used to pay off PAM Jaya's Rp 900
billion (US$105.88 million) debt to the two partners.
The debt is a cumulative result of the difference between the
water rate paid by customers and the water charges that PAM Jaya
pays to its partners.
PAM Jaya plans to pay Rp 237.59 billion, or 24 percent of its
debts, in installments to TPJ and Palyja next year.
The remaining 13 percent of the rate hike will be used to
cover inflation and the partners' operational costs.
Since PD PAM Jaya established its partnership with TPJ and
Palyja in early 1998, the water rate has increased three times
before this current increase -- 15 percent in February 1998, 35
percent in April 2001 and 40 percent in April 2003.