Rp 13t needed to repair facilities destroyed by floods
Rp 13t needed to repair facilities destroyed by floods
JAKARTA (JP): It will take the city administration Rp 13
trillion (US$6.04 billion) to replace the buildings and
infrastructure destroyed by recent floods, Deputy Governor for
Social Welfare R.S. Museno said yesterday.
The fund will be used to repair or replace dikes, houses and
roads.
"Rebuilding will take five times more money than is available
in the city budget," he said, after receiving 2,000 garments from
the Jakarta chapter of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for
distribution to flood victims.
Museno urged Jakartans to help the municipal administration
repair the damage.
The municipal administration, in cooperation with the Ministry
of Public Works, is helping to repair a total of 2,500 meters of
river banks along the Ciliwung river in five mayoralties with
special disaster emergency funds.
The total cost of the project is Rp 1.4 billion. The ministry
is contributing Rp 800 million, while the city administration is
providing Rp 600 billion, he said.
The City Council has approved the city budget for 1995/1996
fiscal year at Rp 2.7 trillion, with the administration
allocating Rp 350 million of that to help the victims.
The Rp 350 million from the municipal administration has been
distributed to the five mayoralties, with Central Jakarta and
East Jakarta each receiving Rp 100 million, while the remaining
three mayoralties each got Rp 50 million.
The Ministry of Social Affairs has granted Rp 187.5 million in
aid for the flood victims.
Last week, Museno said that the city administration had
collected Rp 650 million fund from the public through a special
bank account.
Public
Several areas in the city were inundated by flood water on
Jan. 7 and 8. A total of 354,000 people were affected by from the
disaster.
The floods, which were said to be the worst in 20 years,
killed 10 people, devastated five mayoralties and inflicted a
total of Rp 39.54 billion in material losses. The floods washed
away 200 houses and destroyed at least 200 other buildings.
In a related development, Antara reported that the budgetary
commission of the House of Representative considers the city
budget too small to overcome problems such as floods, traffic
jams and slum areas.
"Jakarta should set its budget five times higher than the
current budget to overcome the problems," Soejanto, spokesman for
the commission, said in a preliminary meeting yesterday.
The commission said that the city budget can be increased by
increasing the city administration's original revenues.
He suggested that the city administration can increase its
budget by increasing the volume of exports and intensifying the
collection of property taxes.
"About 91 percent of the property taxes is city income,
therefore if the city administration can intensify the collection
of the taxes it will get more revenue," Soejanto said. (yns)