Mayor mad over costly ID cards

TANGERANG (JP): Mayor Djakaria Machmud has threatened to fire subdistrict and village chiefs who inflate the cost of ID cards.

The administration has set the cost of a national ID card at Rp 7,500 (almost US$1) but in some villages the price has reportedly been inflated to Rp 30,000.

"Subdistrict and village chiefs caught red-handed inflating the cost will be fired there and then," the mayor said when meeting with residents of Benda subdistrict late last week, Antara reported.

Djakaria said that each village chief was required to put a sign in his office which made it clear that an ID card cost Rp 7,500.

He said there was no reason for village officials to charge extra because they were paid by the people to do the job.

"I don't want to hear more complaints from the public that it is both expensive to get an ID and one has to carry out a complicated bureaucratic procedure for that," he said.

He said officials should not make things difficult in such a time of economic crisis. (pan)