Economy class fares to be fixed till April
Economy class fares to be fixed till April
JAKARTA (JP): The government will not raise economy class
public transportation fares before April, Minister of
Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said yesterday.
The minister, however, said that his ministry would provide
soft loans to transportation cooperatives across the country to
help them cope with the economic crisis that has resulted in
soaring prices of automotive spare parts.
"The President also supported the policy not to increase
tariffs for economy class transportation," Haryanto said after
meeting with President Soeharto at the Bina Graha presidential
office.
The minister said he had allocated Rp 12 billion (US$1.2
million) in soft loans, taken from the profits of state-owned
companies under the ministry's supervision, to help the ailing
transportation sector.
"This credit's annual interest rate is only six percent," the
minister noted, adding that the fund would be disbursed next
week.
Haryanto said he could understand the difficulties facing
public transportation drivers considering the soaring prices of
spare parts and lubricants but emphasized that strikes would only
aggravate the situation.
He noted that only a few drivers had staged strikes across the
country, but that they had forced other drivers to join the
action.
Local authorities will persuade the drivers to resume
operations, Haryanto said.
Thousands of drivers of minibuses as well as city and inter-
city buses went on strike in Jakarta, Central Java, and Sumatra
last week. They demanded that the government impose harsh
penalties on hoarders that had made caused lubricant and parts
prices to skyrocket.
The Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda)
announced yesterday that it would impose a 25 percent hike on
inter-city and inter-provincial bus fares. The new tariffs will
come into effect today.
The chairman of Organda's Jakarta chapter, Aip Syarifuddin,
guaranteed yesterday that the organization would not raise
tariffs in Jakarta, including for air-conditioned buses, until
March at the earliest.
The People's Consultative Assembly will hold its General
Session in March. Government officials have repeatedly said they
would not tolerate any hint of disruption to security during the
session. A tariff hike would likely trigger public unrest,
experts said.
"I have met with Organda leaders and they understood the
government's policy (not to raise tariffs)," Haryanto said
yesterday. (prb)