People's incomes 'considered in parking fee hike'

People's incomes 'considered in parking fee hike'

JAKARTA (JP): People's ability to pay will be taken into
account in passing a new rule on parking fees, Governor Surjadi
Soedirdja said yesterday.

After attending a ceremony to install security officers for
May's general election, Surjadi said the planned increased was
still under deliberation.

He was responding to the uproar over a draft rule to increase
parking fees to up to Rp 5,000 a time in limited areas without
parking meters, or for the first hour in areas with meters.

Surjadi said the figures had not yet been decided.

The areas where the higher fees were to be applied would be
selected carefully, Surjadi said.

A source said the limited areas where the highest fees would
be effective would be announced in a governor's decree. The
selected areas would take into account the most congested sites,
he said.

Easing the traffic jams caused by street parking was the main
aim of the plan, the source, who asked not to be named, said.

"The parking rule we have is 17 years old, and the parking
fees have to be adjusted," he said. Under the 1979 rule parking
fees are Rp 300 but in practice people pay at least Rp 500.

Motorists said Wednesday the planned new fees were too high. A
manager of a shopping center was worried the number of customers
would decrease while another said customers would not be
affected. Consumer advocate Tini Hadad said parking fees should
cover insurance to guarantee the safety of parked cars.

Meanwhile city secretary Harun Al Rasyid confirmed that the
draft, if passed, would put into effect fees from Rp 1,000 to Rp
5,000, the Antara news agency reported yesterday.

He called for better management of parking lots and better
control over parking attendants collecting parking fees at
illegal parking lots.

Many roads not designed for parking are parked in, causing
traffic jams, Harun said.

The head of the Parking Agency, Soemaryono, acknowledged
earlier many parking areas were unlisted, referring to unofficial
sites where fees paid were not passed on to the city.

For several years councilors have criticized the agency's
management for its low contribution to the city budget, comparing
revenue from parking fees with that of other cities with less
vehicles.

In the 1995/1996 fiscal year the agency collected Rp 11
billion while the target was Rp 16 billion.

The head of the council's Commission C for revenue, Helmy AR
Syihab, had said the agency should be able to collect Rp 43
billion a year from only 400,000 cars parked once a day with fees
of Rp 300 each. (anr/jun)