City parking agency plans to lower levy

City parking agency plans to lower levy

JAKARTA (JP): The city car parking agency plans to lower the
levy paid by private parking operators from 35 percent to between
10 percent and 15 percent of their annual income.

The chairman of City Council Commission D on development
affairs, Sayogo Hendrosubroto, confirmed that the agency has
requested an amendment to City Bylaw No.5/1999 but has yet to
submit a full draft of the amendment.

Sayogo said the commission plans to hold a hearing with the
agency later this month to discuss it further.

"It was their decision to have the levy lowered but we have to
know why they intend to do it," Sayogo said.

The city bylaw has become a source of dispute between the city
administration and private parking operators.

The private operators maintain that the regulation contravenes
other government regulations including Law No. 18/1997 on taxes
and Law No. 20/1997 on provincial or mayoralty taxes.

The city bylaw obliges parking operators of private properties
to set parking rates at Rp 1,000 for the first hour and Rp 1,000
for each following hour, while Article 3 of Law No. 20/1997
stipulates that the city administration should only manage
parking lots which are owned and operated by the administration
but not those run by private parking operators.

Sayogo pointed out that lowering the levy will affect the
subsidy from the city budget to the agency.

"As you know the city parking agency is always under public
scrutiny as it receives a subsidy from the city administration
but do not provide a profit for the city," Sayogo said.

In the 2000 city budget that covers a nine-month period, the
city parking agency received, some Rp 14.6 billion
(US$1.62million).

City parking agency senior officials could not be contacted on
Thursday to comment on the plan.(dja)