City mulls revising new bus fares

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Amid strong opposition from bus operators over the increase in public bus fares here, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso has said his administration will consider revising the new fares.

"If the councillors are willing to revise the ruling, I will go with it since they represent the residents," Sutiyoso said over the weekend.

He recounted that the new fares had also been approved by the councillors. "The councillors must therefore be consulted with over any changes in the ruling," he said.

The Jakarta Council approved two weeks ago public transportation fare increases, as proposed earlier by Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, of between 25 and 58 percent. The approved fares have made public transportation players unhappy since they proposed an increase of between 39 and 113 percent.

Some bus crews have demanded of passengers that they pay fares higher than those approved. Crews of economy-class buses with limited seats, for instance, have asked passengers to pay Rp 2,500, higher than the approved fare of Rp 2,000.

City Council speaker Ade Surapriatna said the councillors were ready to revise the new fares, and that the council was awaiting feedback from residents and bus operators over the new fares.

"Basically, we want all parties to survive the latest fuel prices increases, both residents and bus operators ... We will immediately consider the revision of the ruling should we receive strong objections over the fares," he said.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Jakarta branch of the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda DKI) Herry Rotty said his organization had requested that the City Transportation Agency evaluate the implementation of the new rates.

"We are slated to discuss the results of the evaluation next week together with the agency as well as the City Transportation Council (DTK)," Herry said.

The DTK is an independent body manned by representatives of the public (as passengers), non-governmental organizations, traffic police, scholars and public transportation players, which is tasked to give feedback to the Jakarta governor over transportation issues, including on fare increase.

According to Herry, the results of the discussion would be passed on to the Jakarta council for follow-up.