City's plan to double ID card fees approved

City's plan to double ID card fees approved

JAKARTA (JP): City councilors agreed on Monday to Governor
Sutiyoso's proposal for a 100 percent increase in the charge for
ID cards, despite calls to scrap the fee because of its token
value.

Head of Commission A for administrative affairs Hotma Tambunan
said the agreement to raise the fee to Rp 2,000 was made during a
working session of the commission, the city population agency and
an assistant to the city secretary on public administration
affairs.

He added the fee increase was acceptable because it was still
in accordance with a 1996 decree of the Minister of Home Affairs
on a maximum Rp 3,000 cost for the card's issuance.

"So, it won't be a problem provided the officials in charge of
the matter stick to the regulation and they don't charge people
more than what has been set," he said.

Critics have said the fee should be abolished because it is an
insignificant revenue source and fosters corruption among city
officials. ID cards are mandatory for city residents

Deputy Governor for Administrative Affairs Abdul Kahfi said
that it would be impossible to eliminate the fee.

"The ID card processing is financed by a fund taken from the
city budget, which is people's money. If it is abolished, we will
only further burden the people," he said.

Contacted separately by The Jakarta Post, Tursandi Alwi, the
assistant to city secretary on public administration affairs,
hoped the public would understand the administration's need to
increase revenue.

"We've experienced big losses due to the enactment of the 1997
bylaw on local taxes and levies which, as a consequence, cut the
city revenue. That's why we need to maximize the rest of the
levies," he said.

The bylaw cut the number of local taxes from 42 to nine and
the number of levies from 192 to 30. (ind)