City likely to up budget to Rp 17t for next year

City likely to up budget to Rp 17t for next year

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration is likely to propose Rp 17 trillion
for next year's budget, or an 18 percent increase from the
current 2005 budget of Rp 14.3 trillion.

The administration has prioritized several projects, like the
development of the busway's new corridors and the East Flood
Canal in the new budget, while paying greater attention to the
welfare of teachers, civil servants and the incentives for heads
of neighborhood units and community units as well.

"We will continue to finalize some priority projects, like the
busway and East Flood Canal next year," Deputy Governor Fauzi
Bowo said at City Hall after a closed-door presentation by City
Planning Agency head Achmad Hariadi.

Fauzi said his administration proposed the allocation of Rp
800 billion to develop four more busway corridors in addition to
the existing route and two routes that are slated to become
operational by the end of this year.

This year, the administration has earmarked about Rp 500
billion to complete the two corridors connecting Pulogadung in
East Jakarta to Harmoni in Central Jakarta and from Harmoni to
Kalideres in West Jakarta. The first busway stretching from Blok
M in South Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta that has been
operational since January last year cost about Rp 240 billion.

For the East Flood Canal project, which is meant to mitigate
flooding in the eastern part of the city, the administration will
provide Rp 400 billion, or the same as this year's allocation,
mainly for land acquisition.

The canal project that is estimated to cost Rp 5 trillion has
been bogged down amid strong opposition by land owners to the
project. The land owners are demanding higher compensation than
the administration can afford.

Aside from those priority projects, the administration will
double the fund for the poor to Rp 200 billion next year from Rp
100 billion this year.

According to Fauzi, the preparation of the draft 2006 city
budget by City Planning Agency (Bapeda) is expected to be
completed within two weeks so that it could submit it to the City
Council for deliberation.

Fauzi also said that his administration planned to raise the
living allowance for teachers and civil servants to Rp 2 million
from the current Rp 1 million and Rp 1.7 million from Rp 750,000
currently respectively in addition to the basic salary.

"As part of efforts to uphold security in the smallest
community unit here, we will also increase incentives given to
heads of neighborhood units and community units so that they will
be more motivated to secure their respective communities," he
said.

The administration has been facing serious problems to
effectively involve those heads in its war against terrorism. In
the past five years, Jakarta has seen a string of bomb attacks,
for which police believe terrorists use rented houses as a
hideout to prepare the attacks.

The bomb attack on the Australian Embassy in Kuningan in South
Jakarta in September last year claimed nine lives and injured
hundreds of others.

Jakarta Police have called on the public to stay vigilant in
case of another bomb attack despite the death of terrorist
Azahari bin Husin in Batu, Malang in East Java last week, saying
that some terror suspects were still at large.