City to raise fines, councillor reveals

City to raise fines, councillor reveals

JAKARTA (JP): The maximum fine for people violating city
bylaws will be increased by 100 times from Rp 50,000 (US$5.2) to
Rp 5 million, chief of the City Council's Commission A for
Administrative Affairs Binsar Tambunan said on Sunday.

"So be careful since the city administration has submitted the
draft. We start to deliberate it this week and will complete it
by next month," Binsar of the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) said.

He said the maximum jail term would also be doubled from three
months to six months.

He said the current maximum fine imposed on people violating
city bylaws, which has been effective since 1974, no longer fits
the current situation.

"The value of rupiah has sharply depreciated so a fine of Rp
50,000 does not cause people to think before violating the bylaws
any longer," he was reported by Antara as saying.

He said the implementation of Law No. 22/1999 on regional
autonomy would require replacement of all city regulations which
referred to Law No. 5/1974, which was declared defunct due to the
presence of the 1999 law.

The draft bylaw proposes heavy punishments in order to improve
orderliness in the capital, Binsar said.

"City administration should be the first to prepare for the
bylaw. If it is not yet ready, the new ruling will be useless,"
Binsar asserted.

Binsar said people did not hesitate to violate the current
city bylaws on, among others, public order and maintenance of
public facilities, due to minor punishment. (jun)