Ministry to go ahead with bus tariff hike

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Communication has decided to apply the temporary 25 percent extra charge to intercity bus fares during the seasonal peak festive seasons to both air- conditioned and non air-conditioned buses, an official said on Wednesday.

"The 25 percent tuslah (extra charge) will be applicable to all classes and effective from January 1 to January 16," head of the ministry's regional office, Faisal Amir, said at City Hall after a meeting with Governor Sutiyoso.

The government's final decision will automatically bury the dream of bus owners, who earlier wanted to set their own seasonal tariff for their air-conditioned buses.

According to the businessmen, the government's 25 percent temporary extra hike was only aimed at seats for economy class buses, their term for non air-conditioned buses.

"We'll therefore set up a different tariff for the executive class (air-conditioned buses) to avoid confusion among the passengers," Aip Syaripuddin, chairman of Jakarta chapter of the Association of Public Land Transportation Owners (Organda), said last Friday.

But Faisal said on Wednesday that the intercity bus owners had already accepted the government's decision.

"We accept the decision made by the government and we will be loyal to it," Aip was quoted as saying by Faisal.

Faisal also said the 25 percent seasonal extra charge had been negotiated with Commission IV for Infrastructure and Transportation Affairs of the House of Representatives (DPR).

He, however, admitted about the possible occurrence of bus tariff violations during the upcoming festive seasons, particularly a few days prior to and after the Idul Fitri holiday.

"We will not close our eyes and ears to such violations," he said, while asking for passenger participation in reporting any violations to the authority.

Head of the city Land Transportation Agency, Buyung Atang, who also attended the meeting with Sutiyoso, aired the same concern on tariff violations which always occurred during such annual peak seasons where over 1 million Jakarta residents left the capital for their respective hometowns by land to celebrate the post-Ramadhan day.

"The agency will deploy about 100 plainclothes officials to monitor the implementation of the extra charge," Buyung said.

The officials, he said, would board the buses pretending to be ordinary travelers.

During the previous Idul Fitri holiday, in January this year, the agency recorded 65 buses violating the allowable hike on bus tariffs.

"I hope the number will not be as high during this Idul Fitri holiday," he said.

Idul Fitri is expected to fall on January 9.

In a bid to accommodate the massive flow of travelers, the agency had conducted road worthiness tests on a number of city buses which would be reserved as backup buses for the seasonal travel, Buyung explained.

"We found that 10 percent of city buses were not fit to ply the intercity routes. We won't deploy these kind of buses," he said.

According to Faisal, the government had also put on standby three Landing Ship Tank (LSTs) vessels to be used as backups.

"KRI Teluk Langsa and KRI Teluk Amboina have a capacity of some 900 passengers each, while KRI Teluk Hading can carry some 300 passengers," he said.

His office last week estimated the number of annual Idul Fitri travelers leaving Jakarta would reach a total of 2.2 million people. (05)