Drivers, passengers object to plan of bus fare increase

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Consumers' Foundation (YLKI), drivers of medium-sized buses and their passengers have all objected to the plan of the Organization of City Public Transportation Owners (Organda) to increase the bus fare from Rp 300 (14 US cents) to Rp 750.

They also raised objections to Organda's demand that it no longer be required to subsidize students which allows them to pay only Rp 100 instead of Rp 300.

"I am afraid that if the government agrees with their plan, the salaries of low-income laborers would only be enough to pay bus fares," Zoemrotin K. Soesilo, the chairman of the Indonesian Consumers' Foundation, told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

For instance, a laborer with a daily wage of Rp 3,800 would have to spend Rp 1,500 a day or 39 percent of his wage on transportation if the fare was increased to Rp 750, she said.

The matter would be worse if the laborer has to transfer buses, she added.

"A fare increase from Rp 300 to Rp 500 or even Rp 750 is not proportional to the average income of daily laborers, or other low-income people who find it very difficult to get a wage raise," Zoemrotin said.

Objections to the planned increase of bus fares were also raised by Muslih, 24, a technician who commutes every day from Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, to his workplace in Cilangkap, East Jakarta.

Though dressed neatly like a white-collar worker, Muslih said the increase would still be financially heavy for him.

Ellen, 30, a housewife whose husband works as a mechanic at Sempati Air, said that although she travels on Metromini minibuses only once every two days to visit friends and relatives, she believes an increase would substantially effect her daily expenses.

Suyono, 19, a student of an economics school in Petukangan, South Jakarta, and Yanto, 15, a junior high school student, also cited economic reasons for their dislike of the proposed fare increase.

Subsidy

Zoemrotin said that the money for subsidizing students should be taken from the government's coffers instead of the bus owners or the operators.

He said the government, for instance, could allocate a portion of parking taxes to subsidize the school children. Students could be asked to buy transport coupons at a lower price and bus conductors could then exchange them at an appointed government office for the normal price, Zumrotin said.

Sunarno, 29, a driver of a Metromini bus, told the Post he totally disagreed with the plan for three reasons:

First, he said, it would almost certainly result in an increase in the rental fees the drivers must pay to bus owners.

Second, many passengers were reluctant to pay the present fare of Rp 300 and usually paid only Rp 200. Forcing them to pay would result in disruptive, noisy arguments, he added.

Third, people might prefer going by bajaj (three-wheeled motor-engined taxis) to going by bus for short distances, he said. Moreover, two or three people could use the bajaj and share the fare. "If this happened, our income would, of course, be affected," he said.

A group of around 10 drivers and conductors of the Kopaja minibuses at Taman Puring, South Jakarta, all of whom requested anonymity, told the Post they were pessimistic that the plan would work.

Even at the present rate, some passengers pay only Rp 100. They say they will get off the bus soon because they are only traveling a short distance but usually stay on for a long time, the drivers said.

Students

"If the students get on our buses in group, say, more than five junior or senior high school students, we cannot force them to pay if they don't want to. Otherwise, they will shatter the windows of our buses," they said.

Most of the drivers, however, disagreed on whether students should no longer be given subsidy.

"Imagine you are a low-income worker with five children. Wouldn't it burden you considerably if your children had to pay Rp 300 or even Rp 500 for fares to go to school?" one driver said.

Another driver, however, said that he did not agree and believed school children should be required to pay Rp 300.

"I think Rp 300 is an ideal price and acceptable to most people," he added.

H. Aip Sjarifuddin, Organda's chairman, told the Post earlier that he considered the fare increase urgent because owners of the medium-sized buses found it very hard adjusting their incomes to the escalating operating costs. (arf)