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)