Official parking fees may be raised by 30%

JAKARTA (JP): The administration is drafting a proposal to hike parking fees by around 30 percent to between Rp 500 (17 US cents) and Rp 1,000 per vehicle per hour. The official tariff is Rp 300.

Parking fees at commercial buildings should also be based on the proposed draft, the head of the city parking agency, Sumaryono, said yesterday.

But commercial buildings could adapt their own tariff "progressively", he told reporters but refused to elaborate further.

Sumaryono said the decision would be made solely by the city administration without any intervention from the private sector.

"We can't let private investors make the decision because parking fees are a matter of public interest," Sumaryono said.

He guaranteed that the draft would not burden the people.

Current parking fees in Jakarta collected by either city personnel or employees of commercial buildings are already similar to the tariff proposed by the parking agency.

At some privately owned buildings, the fees have even reached Rp 2,000 per car per hour but the city authorities do nothing to stop it.

According to a rule issued by the city in 1979, the official parking fee is Rp 300 for cars and Rp 200 for motorcycles per hour.

The city parking agency once sparked public anger when it announced a plan to further increase the fee to as much as Rp 5,000 per car per hour.

The agency argued that the controversial plan, which was later scrapped, was designed to deter people from using their cars and so reduce traffic congestion in the city.

Sumaryono said yesterday that the city was facing difficulties providing sufficient parking areas due to the lack of space.

"Private companies are reluctant to join or build parking areas because the construction costs are higher than the profit they could collect from the parking fees," he said.

"Worst, the price of the land here is getting higher and higher which has made it impossible for the city to have huge parking lots," he said.

When asked to comment on the proposed draft, councilor Amarullah Asbah, who chairs Commission C for finance affairs, expressed his support.

"I think it's about time the city raised parking fees," he said. "But the hike must be accompanied by a significant improvement in services by the agency managing the fees."

"Many of the agency employees do nothing but ask other people to do their jobs and later collect the parking fees from them," Amarullah said.

In the 1996/1997 fiscal year, the agency collected Rp 18.3 billion, Rp 5 billion less then expected. (07)