Organda to ask government for rise in bus fares

JAKARTA (JP): The organization of the owners of City Public Transportation (Organda) will ask the governor and the Minister of Transportation to increase fares for medium-sized and large buses from Rp 300 (14 US cents) to Rp 500. It is also planning to raise the taxi meter rate.

"Next week we will summon all our members to a meeting before formally submitting a request for the increase to the government," H. Aip Sjarifuddin, Organda's chairman, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

Aip said that last year, his organization forwarded a similar request to the government, but it was rejected by the Minister of Transportation.

"The transportation business will not remain profitable if the government keeps on determining the fares, because it will always put an emphasis on social aspects, that is, looking after the community's ability to pay fares," Aip said.

"We would be pleased if the government would invite us to explain why we must demand this increase. Our day-to-day operating costs are escalating," he said.

Spare parts prices, for instance, have doubled compared to two or three years ago, he said, and the lower the value of the vehicles due to depreciation, the higher their maintenance costs are becoming.

In addition, there are still other periodic costs, such those related to vehicle testing, license plate renewals and other vehicle documents "for which we often must pay higher than the prescribed fees," Aip said.

Four years

"Bus fares have not been increased for more than four years," he said," while toll fees are subject to an increase every two years."

"We also find that the subsidy we must give to students is a burden which is too heavy for us," Aip said. "At present, students have the privilege of paying only Rp 100 or one-third of the present fare. This means that we have been subsidizing Rp 200 to each of about 800,000 elementary to senior high school students now registered at the city education office," he said.

If only half of them use buses to go to school and go home, we give a subsidy of Rp 200 multiplied by 400,000 multiplied by two, which is equal to Rp 160 million in just one day, he said.

Besides, at present there are no government banks willing to give us loans, Aip said.

The reason, according to Linda Herawaty of PT MetroMini, which operates MetroMini minibuses, is that there were many bus owners who used the loans for purposes other than buying buses. As a result, many of the credits extended by the government banks are not performing," she said.

"We must resort to asking for loans from private banks or turn to private leasing agencies, which impose interest rates higher than those of the government banks," Aip said.

"All these affect our income considerably," he said.

If the government insists on not increasing bus fares, it should do something to help us. For instance, it could give us soft loans and no longer require us to give subsidies to students, he added. (arf)