Governor should accept criticism, says councilor

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Surjadi Soedirdja should not get upset over public criticism of the city's planned parking fee hike a councilor said yesterday.

M. Rodja of the United Development Party faction said the governor should appreciate the comments.

"The city administration should be responsive to any concern raised by the people," said Rodja, of Commission D for development affairs.

The governor reacted Monday to heated public debate on the plan to hike parking fees by 100 to 1000 percent by saying the critics had gone to far with their comments and they were wasting their energy because the city had yet to propose the plans to the council.

The governor said the increase would be adjusted to levels people could afford, lest the plan be useless.

The existing fee structure was fixed in a 1979 city rule which set parking fees for cars at Rp 300, although in practice motorists are expected to pay Rp 500. The draft new rule sets parking fees for cars, on roads without parking meters, at Rp 1,000 a time, and, on roads with meters, at Rp 1,000 for the first hour.

In limited parking areas, yet to be announced, parking fees will reach Rp 5,000 for the first hour and the fee will double every consecutive hour.

The governor said the plan was intended to ease traffic and increase city revenue which would then be spent improving public services.

Critics said the plan was irrational because the parking management and the public transportation system was still poor.

Motorists and consumer advocates suggested the plan be canceled.

The parking agency has come under fire for its consistent failure to reach its revenue collection target. In the fiscal year 1995/1996 the agency collected Rp 11 billion (US$ 4.5 million), Rp 5 billion (US$ 2 million) less than expected.

Rodja said the leakage of parking fee revenue was more than 50 percent.

Rodja calculated the city could earn at least Rp 131 billion a year from Jakarta's 2.2 million cars from the parking fees of only 700,000 cars a day, assuming car owners paid Rp 600 for two hours parking a day.

The revenue could be higher if the planned obligatory 25 percent of fees were paid to the city by private parking managements, Rodja said. Private parking providers operate 143 parking sites.

Councilor Helmy AR Syihab earlier estimated parking agencies could collect Rp 43 billion a year from only 400,000 cars parked once a day at fees of Rp 300 (US 12 cents) each.

The agency's poor service to consumers was also criticized.

"The parking agency is like a landlord who rents a space and then leaves it without assuming any responsibility," Rodja said. (11)