Take action against bus operators: YLKI

Take action against bus operators: YLKI

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI)
encouraged the public on Saturday to sue bus operators for
overpricing tickets during the Idul Fitri holidays.

"License revocation by the Minister of Transportation and
Telecommunications is not enough. These bus operators repeatedly
commit the same violations every year," said YLKI's chairwoman,
Indah Suksmaningsih.

She made the remark following the earlier announcement from
the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications office
about the revocation of licenses of 68 buses from 48 companies
because their fares were higher than the rate stipulated by the
government.

The maximum hike of 25 percent, was meant to compensate for
empty seats on the buses during the return journey from each
destination. It took effect from Dec. 20, 2000 to Jan. 4, 2001,
when millions of Jakarta residents left for their hometowns.

A research conducted by YLKI revealed that the recent Idul
Fitri holidays saw the highest level of violations committed by
bus operators.

The report said bus operators had increased the ticket price
from between 30 percent and 240 percent, while those who
purchased tickets from scalpers were charged up to 600 percent of
the normal price.

The report said most of the victims were passengers of economy
class buses particularly those traveling the Jakarta-Surakarta
route. Most of them were from the lower-income bracket, who had
no access to information.

YLKI recorded that 70 percent of a total of 2,805 respondents
in five cities -- Jakarta, Semarang and Surakarta, Yogyakarta and
Surabaya said they experienced overpricing.

"Our findings also revealed that half of our respondents
claimed that the new fare hike wasn't mentioned on the tickets or
on the sticker on each bus.

"That's considered deception!" said Indah.

Indah said other passengers said they were requested to pay
for their tickets onboard, particularly those who couldn't
purchase the tickets from bus agents or ticket counters.

"Other violations included putting additional seats in the
bus, dropping off passengers from the bus before they reached
their destinations, and not providing tickets for the
passengers," she said.

Anton Tampubolon of the Directorate General of Land
Transportation, who also joined the discussion, said the
sanctions applied to each bus varied in accordance with the
degree of their violations. (07)