New Facts Emerge on Blok M Square Parking: Permit Expired but Business Continues

The controversy surrounding parking management in the Blok M Square area, South Jakarta, has brought to light new facts. The parking operator managing the area is suspected of lacking an active permit since 2023, yet parking operations have continued until 2026. This finding emerged after the DKI Jakarta Transportation Agency (Dishub), along with the DPRD DKI Jakarta’s Special Parking Committee (Pansus), sealed several parking gates in the area on Monday (11/5/2026). The Head of the South Jakarta Parking Implementation Unit, Damanik, stated that Best Parking, the parking operator, has not renewed its operational permit despite the previous one’s expiry. “This means Best Parking should have renewed its permit. The last one was in 2023; perhaps there was some obstacle like forgetting or whatever, resulting in the permit expiring,” said Damanik when met at Blok M Square on Wednesday (13/5/2026). The case stems from findings of alleged illegal collections by the parking operator over the past three years. The Chairman of the DPRD DKI Jakarta’s Special Parking Committee, Ahmad Lukman Jupiter, said the Blok M area has enormous parking revenue potential. According to him, parking income in the area is estimated to reach Rp100 million per day or more than Rp3 billion per month. However, the remittances to the local government are said to be less than 60% of the existing potential. “I think in the Blok M area, it’s very busy, becoming an economic hub, and here the parking revenue is very large,” said Jupiter when met in Blok M on Monday (11/5/2026). The committee has requested the Regional Revenue Agency (Bapenda), the Financial Audit Agency (BPK), and the Jakarta High Prosecutor’s Office to further investigate the operator’s financial reports. According to him, the absence of an automatic reminder system means that expired permit statuses are not immediately detected. “We only found out yesterday that PTSP also just realised, oh, it’s expired in the system,” said Massdes.