City councillors find illegal increase in bu ticket prices

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The City Council's Commission D, dealing with transportation, found stickers announcing an illegal increase in bus ticket prices of up to 125 percent at the Pulo Gadung bus terminal on Tuesday.

The illegal stickers, which announced price hikes of between 25 and 125 percent, were found on display at several ticket counters by the Commission's nine councillors, who were making an impromptu inspection of the bus terminal in East Jakarta.

Ali Imran, the deputy chairman of commission D, who happened to discover the violation, said that the stickers were apparently issued by DLLAJ (the City Land Transportation Agency).

The release of the stickers violated the government's decision to approve an increase of only 12 percent in bus ticket prices during this year's Ramadhan and post-fasting celebrations of Idul Fitri.

He ordered the head of DLLAJ, Rustam Effendi, to immediately remove all of the stickers.

According to Rustam, there were 19 reports of bus fare violations from passengers on Tuesday, including PO. Handoyo, which had its operating license revoked by the DLLAJ, and Rosalia Indah, which raised its ticket prices by about 45 percent.

Ali said that several bus companies had posted the stickers. However, when confronted over the matter, several bus companies accused the DLLAJ of intentionally placing the deceptive price lists on their ticket counters.

"We have objected to the faulty stickers, but they refused to change them immediately. It has been three days since the protest, but no attempt has been made to change them", said Yono, a ticket counter attendant at the Rosalia Indah bus company.

Hasanudin, a staff member at the DLLAJ, told The Jakarta Post that the stickers were leftovers from last year and that his agency had run out of new ones.

By Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of Jakarta residents had left the city traveling to their hometowns to celebrate Idul Fitri and Christmas.

There are no precise figures for travelers departing from bus terminals, but the number of travelers using trains from Gambir and Senin railway stations has reached 343,414.

The peak of the annual exodus was expected on Thursday, two days before the Idul Fitri celebrations.

On Monday, Gambir railway station saw off as many as 9,381 passengers, while 13,434 passengers left from Senen station.

Zainal Abidin, the public relations chief for PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), said that there was no significant increase in passenger numbers on Tuesday. "We expect the peak of the annual exodus will be on Thursday Dec. 13 as all seats have been fully booked," he said.