Organda allowed to import used buses

Sari P. Setiogi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) will be allowed to buy imported second-hand buses from Japan and Australia at reduced prices in a deal with the government to cancel a planned bus fare hike.

"These low-priced buses are to be provided to replace the bus owners' plan to increase bus fares due to the increased fuel prices early this year," chairman of Organda Dadan Irawan Sarpingi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

According to Dadan, the import plan is one of the concessions being offered by the government to Organda if it cancels its plan to raise bus fares. They will also get tax breaks.

"The cutting of value-added tax and import duties on imported buses are among the others," he said.

Dadan said that the issue was now being discussed in the Ministry of Finance.

He also explained that the imported buses would be mostly allocated for Jakarta and operated as non-air-conditioned economy buses with a fare of Rp 900 per person.

Dadan said that there would be a total of 3,000 second-hand buses priced between Rp 115 million and Rp 120 million. Most of these air-conditioned buses have been in operation for 10 years on average.

He expected that the revenue received from the operation of those imported buses, would enable the organization to buy brand new buses in the future.

At the moment, the bus fare for regular buses in Jakarta is Rp 900 per passenger. The last bus fare hike was in May 2002 when the fare was increased by 28.5 percent from Rp 700 to Rp 900.

Dadan also mentioned that most of the public transportation buses in the city had been in operation for between 17 and 25 years.

"There are about 3,900 buses operating in the city at the moment, while actually only 20 percent of them are roadworthy," he said, "Actually, Jakarta needs 6,000 buses, out of 12,000 required for the whole country."

Dadan also said that Organda expected the government would soon cancel the value-added tax and import duties on imported buses as previously promised.