Lawyers to sue PT Telkom over phone tariff increase

Lawyers to sue PT Telkom over phone tariff increase

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Lawyer's Union (SPI) said on
Thursday that they would sue the government and state-owned PT
Telkom over the unreasonable increase in telephone tariffs.

"We will go ahead with our plan of bringing them to court if
they don't cancel the new telephone rates by March 5," SPI's
chairman Trimedya Panjaitan told a press conference on Thursday.

He said that the government deserves to face such a lawsuit,
citing the fact that a tariff increase of up to 24 times fails to
satisfy two principles of good governance, namely, public trust
and acting in a fair and reasonable manner.

"The government will suffer from public distrust through this
unbearable tariff hike that is questionable in itself and in the
mechanism of the decision process," Trimedya told reporters.

SPI's head of Research and Development Syarif Bastaman said
the government and PT Telkom should involve related institutions
before introducing new rates.

"There should be an appropriate hearing mechanism that
involves a true representative of the public, in this case the
Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI)," he said.

Meanwhile the Director General of Post and Telecommunications
Sasmito Dirdjo said on Wednesday that the government will soon
review the new telephone rates amid public protest, according to
Antara news agency.

The new tariff increases, on top of two raises last year
amounting to almost 20 percent, were based on call distance -- up
to 20 kilometers for local zone one , up to 30 kilometers for
local zone two and over 30 kilometers for local zone three.

Telkom said that the highest increase of 24 percent was for
the last category but observers said that the planned increase
would be much higher than those announced by the
telecommunications company.

According to the Econit consulting agency, the increase in the
tariff within local zone three could reach over 100 percent at
peak hours.

"At present, the directorate general for posts and
telecommunications, and PT Telkom are calculating the percentage
of tariff hikes for local zone three, which will remain feasible
for business calculations," Sasmito said. (02)