Parking is lucrative business

Parking is lucrative business

Many are aware that roadside parking in Jakarta is a lucrative business, requiring relatively little outlay. No wonder many investors are reportedly interested in the business.

The question is why the Jakarta administration is unable to manage the business, as the city has a special agency to deal with parking.

Over the last 10 years the city's parking agency has been unable to collect adequate money from parking, which means that the financial contribution from the agency to the city budget has been lower than expected.

Last year the city administration targeted a total of Rp 32 billion from parking, but the amount realized was only Rp 14 billion, or around 43 percent of the target.

In 2001 a target of Rp 16 billion was also missed. The agency contributed only Rp 8 billion to the city budget.

The above figures prove that management of parking has been very poor, although the business could earn hundreds of millions of rupiah per day. According to Kompas daily, the city has 434 official roadside parking spots, which, on average, can accommodate 50 cars each. With a parking fee of Rp 1,000 per vehicle (for parking on a single occasion), parking attendants should be able to collect millions of rupiah from single-occasion parking.

The amount rises if the income from illegal parking spots is taken into account. With such attractive potential income, every single investor must be interested in the business.

Now the city administration has appointed PT Adiwira Sembada to manage the official roadside parking spots. The firm offers a prepaid voucher system, under which drivers buy vouchers before parking their vehicles in certain areas. The system looks good, but will it be able to curb "leakage" of parking fees?

Experience has taught us that a good system means nothing if its implementation is shoddy.

The other question is whether PT Adiwira Sembada won the tender to manage the parking due to its professionalism or due to "support" from government officials.

-- Harian Ekonomi Neraca, Jakarta