City bus fares to rise between 10% and 20%

City bus fares to rise between 10% and 20%

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Owing to the rising costs of fuel and spare parts, the city
administration has said that it will soon increase city bus fares
by between 10 and 20 percent.

Administration officials will announce formal implementation
of the increase "in the next two weeks," said Putu Wirta Antara,
Jakarta deputy chair of the Land Transportation Owners
Association (Organda) after meeting Governor Sutiyoso at City
Hall on Friday.

Putu, who is also chairman of the Jakarta Transportation Bus
Cooperative (Kopaja), said that fares for medium buses would be
increased from Rp 900 to Rp 1,000, while for larger buses, fares
would rise from Rp 1,000 to Rp 1,200.

During Putu's meeting with the governor, however, fares for
air-conditioned buses and taxi meters were ruled out from being
part of a possible hike.

The governor's plan to increase bus fares comes despite the
fact that Organda had recommended that there be no fare hike if
the fuel price increase was below 30 percent.

The government recently announced that fuel price would
increase by an average of 22 percent meaning that, in effect, the
bus fares should not be affected.

On Monday, Sutiyoso claimed that the fare hike was necessary
to accommodate the rise in fuel prices. But Organda chairman Aip
Syaifuddin countered that his organization would not endorse the
fare rise.

Aip said the fuel price only contributed to 4 percent of the
overall operational costs for city buses.

But on Friday, when asked why Organda finally supported the
fare hike, he said that increases in current prices for spare
parts -- such as tires and filter oil -- have already reached
between 15 and 20 percent.

"On Monday, there was no hike in prices for spare parts. But
they have been increased -- I don't know why. You can ask the
tire producers," Aip said testily.

He added that prices for spare parts contributed to a full 30
percent of the operational costs of city buses.

The planned increase of between Rp 100 and Rp 200 is probably
meaningless for some people.

But for common people, it will be considerable. Overall, their
transportation costs will jump significantly, as many people must
take two or three different buses from their homes just to get to
their place of work.

Asked whether the bus operators would increase their public
service if fares were went up, Aip said, "if we want good
service, the fares should be far higher than the current ones."

However, City Transportation Agency head Rustam Effendy played
down the likelihood of a bus fare increase. "Right now, we have
yet to think about it," Rustam told reporters.

But he said his office and Organda were ready to calculate a
proper fare increase due to the increase of the fuel prices.

He would not say when his office would complete this
calculation.

According to officials, the city presently owns about 10,000
buses, although only 68 percent of them are operational: the rest
have fallen into disrepair -- either from use, or just plain old
age.