Governor to cut taxes, levies for bus owners

Governor to cut taxes, levies for bus owners

JAKARTA (JP): The city's Association of Land Transportation
Owners (Organda) canceled on Friday a planned massive strike next
week after Governor Sutiyoso agreed to grant a temporary 50
percent discount on taxes and levies.

After meeting with the governor at City Hall, Organda's head,
Aip Syaifuddin, said cancellation of the strike had nothing to do
with a threat announced on Thursday by the Jakarta Land
Transportation Agency (DLLAJ). The agency pledged to revoke
public transport owners' operational permits if they went ahead
with the strike.

"We're not afraid of a permit revocation by DLLAJ," he said.

Aip said the decision was only taken after receiving
Sutiyoso's subsidy promise.

He said the governor's offer however, did not appease Organda
members.

"(The subsidy is) still too small and won't cover our
operational costs. We therefore will still ask city council to
approve our proposal to hike the bus fares."

Sutiyoso said the temporary subsidy scheme would become
effective beginning on Friday next week at the latest.

"I just intend to give the bus companies energy to 'breathe'.
But it's a temporary package. It would no longer be effective
should the (economic) situation become normal again," the
governor said.

The 50 percent cut would include cuts to vehicle tax, import
tax on vehicle spare parts and levies of route permits, Sutiyoso
said.

He said he would soon meet with Minister of Finance Bambang
Subianto to ask the latter's ministry office to cut the import
tax of bus spare parts.

He said city-owned Bank DKI would also help bus firms by
providing them with soft loans.

Councilors

Aip also aired Organda's concern over the city councilors'
rejection of a proposal to hike bus fares without discussing the
matter further with related parties, such as Organda, DLLAJ and
the executive body.

Metro Mini's operational director Johannes Damanik said he was
upset with the councilors' rejection of the proposal, saying that
the councilors were "inconsistent".

"In our recent meeting with the councilors, they said they
agreed with the fare hike. But later they rejected it," Damanik
said.

Head of the Kopaja bus cooperative, Putu W. Antara, said the
councilors were attempting to regain popularity with the public.

"They just don't want to lose face," Putu said.

In their personal capacities, the councilors repeatedly
rejected the bus fare hike proposal, saying the public would
suffer from such a move.

They however suggested the city administration provide
subsidies to the bus firms, a suggestion similar to one proposed
by members of the last council.

The city administration earlier rejected subsidies, saying
that it would reduce the city's income by Rp 7 billion a year.

The city administration earlier proposed a fare increase of Rp
200 for regular buses, minibuses, limited seat (Patas) buses and
air-conditioned Patas buses. The student fare for regular buses
was to be doubled to Rp 200.

At least 2,100 privately owned buses -- among 2,675 buses
serving 555 routes in the city each day -- had planned to
participate on Monday in a strike to press their demands on the
bus fare issue. (jun)