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)