Ministry to go ahead with bus tariff hike
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)