City Council fails to set new bus fares

City Council fails to set new bus fares

JAKARTA (JP): A city council leadership meeting on Wednesday
remained unable to set new fares for buses operating in the city.

Council speaker Edy Waluyo told reporters after the meeting,
which was the second of its kind since Monday, that the
discussion would be continued at 3 p.m. on Thursday.

"We have to recalculate the bus firms' operational costs to
find the ideal bus fare, as the Organization of Land
Transportation Owners' (Organda) proposed new fares are too
expensive for city residents," he said.

"The city administration wants to halt the operation of
limited passenger Patas buses. And this will affect the whole
calculation," he added.

Present at the meeting were council leaders Deputy Governor
for Development Affairs Budihardjo Sukmadi and Chairman of the
Jakarta office of the City Land Transportation Agency (DLLAJ)
Buyung Atang.

Earlier in the afternoon, the chairman of Organda's Jakarta
chapter, Aip Syarifuddin, said he would obey any fare hikes
recommended by the city council.

"It's up to the councillors now to decide on the fare hike.
We'll obey any decision they make," he said after the first
session of the meeting with city councillors.

"We'll then recalculate our operational costs with the new
fares to determine the service we can provide to passengers," he
added.

Organda proposed new fares of Rp 1,000 (13 US cents) from Rp
300 for regular buses, Rp 1,200 from Rp 500 for minibuses, Rp
3,250 from Rp 2,300 for Patas AC and Rp 500 from Rp 100 for
students. The proposal was submitted to the city council on
Friday.

Meanwhile, Governor Sutiyoso had submitted a different
proposal to the council on July 20 last year. The governor's
proposal was to raise the regular bus fare to Rp 500 from Rp 300,
minibuses to Rp 700 from Rp 500, Patas AC to Rp 2,500 from Rp
2300 and the student fare to Rp 200 from Rp 100.

Aip renewed Organda's four options concerning the fare hike.

"First, simply approve our proposal for the fare hike or
second, the city administration sets its own fares but subsidizes
the difference of the rate to bus owners.

"The third option is to set the fare based on a market
mechanism or city administration takes over the entire city bus
operation," he said.

Councillor Mulyono of the Golkar Party faction suggested that
city council could approve the fare hike proposed by the city
administration.

"We'll then evaluate the residents' purchasing power
regularly. If it's getting better, we can gradually increase the
fares to reach Organda's proposed ones," he said. (nvn)