Sutiyoso to announce bus fare hike Sunday

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council is scheduled to make a final decision on Saturday relating to the city administration's proposal to increase bus fares by between 30 percent and 60 percent, with the council expected to lower the range of the increase.

After receiving approval from the council on Saturday, the city administration will announce the bus fare increase on Sunday, hoping to avoid a massive strike threatened by bus drivers and operators who have demanded the sharp rise in fares.

Chairman of the council's Commission D for development affairs, Sayogo Hendrosubroto, said on Friday the council would almost certainly lower the increase proposed by the governor.

"The increase will mainly be based on the price increase. We should side with the people's interests, and not bus operators, on this matter," Sayogo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said.

He said the increase of spare part prices would also be considered, as they had increased as a result of the fuel price hike.

Sayogo said he could not reveal the level of the fare increase, saying that it would be decided by the council's leaders in their meeting on Saturday.

Members of Commission D met with Organda executives on Friday, who continued to demand a 100 percent increase of bus fares, however, the commission dismissed the demand.

The commission was also scheduled to meet executives of the Indonesian Consumers' Foundation (YLKI) to discuss the bus fare increase plan, but YLKI representatives failed to appear. Instead, they sent a letter to the council.

In the letter signed by its chairwoman Indah Sukmaningsih, YLKI rejected the fare increase plan based on the fuel price rise.

"Since fuel only contributed to less than 10 percent of bus operational costs, it is not significant enough to increase the fare," Indah said in her letter.

Sayogo said the council could not use YLKI's letter when deliberating the fare increase as it did not suggest an appropriate level for the bus fare increase.

Meanwhile, City Governor Sutiyoso said he would accept whatever decision was made by the council, but warned the council to also consider the interests of bus operators.

"I hope the fare increase is not too low since we should also think about bus operators' interests," he added.

The governor earlier proposed that the bus fares be increased from the current range of between Rp 500 and Rp 2,500 to between Rp 700 and Rp 3,500 while a fare for students be increased from Rp 200 to Rp 300. (jun)