Slaughtering fees to be raised

JAKARTA (JP): City-owned slaughterhouse PD Dharma Jaya will raise fees for butchering pigs and cattle by 30 percent and 65 percent respectively to enable the company to cover losses caused by the crisis.

Company president Susanto said in a meeting with members of City Council Commission C for financial affairs on Monday that the hike was inevitable.

Susanto said fees for pig slaughtering would be raised to Rp 22,500 from Rp 17,000 each and for cattle to Rp 25,000 from Rp 15,000 each.

Councilors welcomed the ideas, saying that it would help shore up the company's financial status by balancing the operational fees with the meat sales.

Data at the city administration revealed earlier that the company suffered Rp 4.6 billion in financial losses during the 1997/1998 fiscal year.

Poor financial performance prevented it from contributing a projected Rp 438 million to the city budget.

Susanto said the company's losses were caused mainly by the rupiah depreciation against the U.S. dollar, which forced Dharma Jaya to pay higher fees for the purchase of cattle imports and feed for the fattening process.

Commission chairman Amarullah Asbah urged the company to improve its financial and management evaluation for the sake of efficiency.

The company butchers pigs, cattle, buffaloes, sheep and lambs according to government standards and distributes their meat to traditional markets and supermarkets throughout the city.

Susanto said city inhabitants consumed meat from about 572 pigs and 900 cattle per day.

"We are also supplied the meat from the slaughterhouses outside Greater Jakarta," he said. (ivy)