City councillors find illegal increase in bu ticket prices
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.