Govt undecided over plan for phone rate hike

JAKARTA (JP): The government is still undecided over the new schedule for raising phone rates after it was forced to delay its rate hike plan last month.

"If it were up to us (the government), we would want to implement the rate hike as soon as possible.

"But, we can't do that before finishing consultations with all concerned parties, including the House of Representatives and consumers," Director General of Posts and Telecommunications at the Ministry of Communications Djamhari Sirat said during a discussion on phone rates.

The government had allowed state telecommunications company PT Telkom to raise phone rates by an average of 21.67 percent on June 10, but it canceled the plan following protests from the public who said that the rate increases proposed by Telkom could have raised phone bills by up to 167.86 percent.

Under the rate increases, Telkom changes its current multiple rate system for Jakarta into a so-termed single rate system.

Rates under the multiple rate system are determined by the duration of the call, the time of the call and the distance between the caller and recipient. Under the proposed single rate system, the rate is determined only by the duration of the call.

The House of Representatives has urged the government to review the proposed rate structure.

Djamhari said that the government's special rates team had now come up with two alternatives.

First, rates for all parts of the country would be increased by between 5.34 percent and 28.9 percent, with rates for long- distance calls increased by 20.9 percent, local calls by 28.7 percent, monthly standing charges by 28.9 percent and rates for residential areas by 5.34 percent.

The second alternative would be to implement a uniform rate hike of 21.67 percent for local calls, long distance calls, and the monthly standing charge.

Djamhari said that although the government's team had come up with the two alternatives, it had yet to decide which alternative to implement.

"We are making them (the alternatives) known to the public, for instance, through discussions like these," he said.

During the discussion, senior executive of the Indonesian Consumers' Foundation (YLKI) Zoemrotin K.S. called on the government to cancel its plan to raise telephone rates, stating that it would greatly burden the public that is still struggling with the economic crisis.

She disagreed with the government's reason that the rate increase was necessary in order to attract foreign investors into the country's telecoms industry.

"No matter how high phone rates are increased, investors will not come as long as social and economic conditions are still in a mess," she said.(tnt)