Council OKs 58% bus fare increase

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Although some bus crews have unilaterally doubled the fares hot on the heels of the Oct. 1 fuel price hike of 126.6 percent, the Jakarta City Council finally approved on Tuesday an increase of between 25 percent and 58 percent.

"The approved figure is slightly lower than the proposal of Governor Sutiyoso. We took out the depreciation value component in our calculation as we deemed that most Jakarta buses are old," council speaker Ade Surapriatna said.

The council met with the City Transportation Council (DTK) and City Transportation Agency on Tuesday to hear the proposal made by the DTK over the fare increase.

Ade said that the recommendation had been directly passed on to Sutiyoso for immediate implementation.

"This recommendation is final and the governor (Sutiyoso) cannot amend it. He is only allowed to sign the gubernatorial decree to follow up the recommendation," he asserted.

He urged Sutiyoso's administration to make the new fares effective as of Wednesday to give certainty to bus operators, bus crew as well as passengers.

He said that taxi fares were not included in the proposal made by Sutiyoso.

"We only handle public transportation vehicles. We don't discuss taxi fares here since those vehicles are serving people who can afford to pay more," he said.

City Secretary Ritola Tasmaya confirmed that the new fares would come into effect on Wednesday.

"We need to finalize the gubernatorial decree before going ahead with the new fares," he said.

DTK member, Andi Rahmah warned that the new fares would deal a severe blow to most Jakarta residents who reportedly spend 20 percent of their daily income on transportation.

"With the new fares ruling, they have to fork out more money for transportation, while at the same time they have to spend more to purchase basic commodities, the prices of which have also soared following the fuel price hike," said Andi, who is also an activist with non-governmental organization, Pelangi.