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)