Government weighs taking errant bus firms off the road

Government weighs taking errant bus firms off the road

JAKARTA (JP): Police are questioning officials from six bus
companies for allegedly violating the maximum permitted fare hike
of 25 percent during the post-fasting Idul Fitri holidays, an
official said on Monday.

"We have filed a report to the City Public Land Transportation
Agency (DLLAJ), and the agency has the authority to take stern
measures against those companies.

"City police are still questioning the company officials,"
head of the Pulo Gadung bus terminal in East Jakarta RK Bambang
Permadi said in his office.

However, he declined to name the six bus companies.

Bambang said the police may later charge the companies with
criminal offenses.

The transportation agency's chairman, Buyung Atang, said his
office would revoke the licenses of any bus company that raised
its fares higher than that stipulated by the government.

The government imposes a universal 25 percent hike in bus and
train fares during the Idul Fitri festive season, which this year
took effect on Jan. 1.

Bambang admitted that violations of the governmental
regulation had become rampant in the bus station in the run-up to
the Idul Fitri celebrations, forcing it to request additional
personnel to combat the practice.

"The city police have deployed 60 personnel, plainclothes and
uniformed, to address the problem," he said.

However, most bus companies in the city remain untouched by
the police operation, still charging passengers with fares higher
than the permitted amount. Such violations could be observed at
the Kampung Rambutan bus terminal in East Jakarta.

Hartono, who was accompanying his two female relatives to
Blora in Central Java, was surprised to find that he had to pay
Rp 35,000 (US$5) for an economy class ticket on a Jaya Bhakti
Super bus serving the Jakarta-Blora route. The official fare for
an economy class ticket to Blora, which is displayed on a board
at the terminal, is Rp 22,000.

"The most important thing is that I got the tickets," he said.

At Pulo Gadung bus terminal, the official cost of a ticket on
an airconditioned bus serving the Jakarta-Jepara route is Rp
40,250. However, the Gadjah Asri Raya bus company is charging Rp
51,000.

Bus company officials said on Monday they had no other option
but to violate the regulation because they had additional
"operational" expenditures during the festive season.

A bus company staffer said his company had to spend a lot of
money on terminal entrance fees, bus components and employee Idul
Fitri bonuses.

"The company must even provide money for terminal officials
and hoodlums along the northern Java coastal road," Effendi A.R.
of Gunung Mulia bus company said, adding that those drivers who
refused to pay off the hoodlums often found their buses pelted by
stones.

However, an official at the Kampung Rambutan terminal,
Prijanto, dismissed the allegations, saying that each bus was
only required to pay Rp 600 on entering the station.

"None of our personnel take additional money from bus crews,"
said Prijanto.

As of Monday, the city's bus terminals were recording a
relatively normal volume of passengers.

Last year in Kampung Rambutan, 22,456 and 19,729 passengers
left the terminal on the sixth and seventh days before Idul
Fitri, compared with this year's totals of 27,734 and 24,938.
(asa)