Garbage coupon expected to help raise revenues

Garbage coupon expected to help raise revenues

JAKARTA (JP): City administration is confident that the implementation of a garbage coupon system, effective as of last month, will substantially raise city revenues from the sanitation sector.

Helmy A.R. Syihab, chairman of the City Council's Commission C, which is in charge of financial affairs, told reporters on Tuesday that the new system was introduced to replace the old one, which proved to be ineffective in collecting sanitation fees.

Speaking after a meeting with officials of the City Sanitation Office, Helmy said that under the old system the administration was unable to meet its target in the collection of garbage fees from the public. The failure was caused mainly by the fact that the notification letters mailed to city residents did not reach the residents because many of them have moved.

"The implementation of the new system is expected to help boost revenue from the sanitation sector to about Rp 18 billion (US$8.18 million), almost double from the previous year," Helmy said.

He explained that under the new system, officers of the sanitation office deliver the coupons by hand to residents, who are required to pay between Rp 250 and Rp 10,000 per family, depending on their location.

In the 1993/1994 fiscal year, the garbage fee collection reached only Rp 6.3 billion, up from Rp 3 billion in 1992/1993. In 1994/1995 the fee collection continued increasing, to Rp 9.9 billion, even though it was still far below target.

Helmy said existing data shows that the number of families living in the city is about 1.7 million. It is not impossible to substantially raise the revenues, he said.

The additional funds from the fee collection will be used to buy more garbage trucks, to help speed up the transportation of waste to the garbage dump in Bekasi, Helmy said.

The sanitation office complained recently that it does not have adequate garbage vehicles to pick up all garbage. The office has only 854 trucks, while ideally, it should own 1,100 trucks.

The city produces 24,000 cubic meters of garbage per day but the city sanitary office can collect only 20,000 cubic meters of it, to be transported to the garbage dump. (yns)