Stickers not compulsory in electricity bills: YLKI

JAKARTA (JP): The state electricity company PLN has promised to stop adding Rp 1,000 customers' bills as compulsory donations for the South East Asia Games, the Indonesian Consumer Organization (YLKI) said yesterday.

PLN President Djiteng Marsudi made the promise in response to YLKI demands that PLN's clients be given the right to refuse to pay the donation.

"PLN will now ask consumers if they are willing to donate by buying SEA Games stickers," YLKI executive director Zumrotin K.S said.

They could refuse to buy the stickers because it is a donation, Zumrotin quoted Djiteng as saying.

Since last month, the consumers' organization has been flooded with complaints about the Rp 1,000 SEA Games donation. It has been added to electricity, telephone and water bills.

In some instances, the Rp 1,000 charge was simply added to the monthly bills, making it impossible for clients to refuse.

Hotel and restaurant patrons and users of some toll roads have been made to pay the money.

Zumrotin said YLKI planned to send similar complaint letters to state telephone company PT Telkom and state water company PAM.

The government sanctioned the selling of SEA Games stickers by a private consortium to raise Rp 40 billion ($16 million) to help stage the regional sports event in Jakarta in October.

But the fundraising, which began last month, has been criticized and some House of Representatives' members who were outraged that the government did not consult them.

Zumrotin urged the government to stop the scheme.

She said YLKI would ask PT Tata Insani Mukti, the consortium appointed by the government to organize and build SEA Games infrastructure, to hold public meetings with consumers to explain the sticker scheme.

Meanwhile the West Nusa Tenggara administration has temporarily stopped adding the Rp 1,000 donations to electricity bills to prevent public resentment.

Antara reported Saturday that PLN withdrew all stickers after a letter from the administration's secretary on May 12.

The head of the local PLN office's customer service division, Sapto Widodo, said "we only collected the donation for three days. We will temporarily keep all of the funds we collected."

He said people could refuse to pay.

"We never instructed people, especially our customers, to pay because it was a voluntary donation," Sapto said.

In Mataram, the head of the local Telkom office, Bambang Tri Winarko, said he did not know about the addition of the Rp 1,000 to customers' telephone bills. (11/ste)