Tangerang seeks increased revenues

TANGERANG (JP): The Tangerang regency legislative council demanded on Tuesday that fees collected from vehicle testing be received by the Tangerang authorities, legislators said.

Deputy speaker of the regency legislature Eby Djauhari and a member of Commission C, Iin Kurniasih, said that vehicle test fees was a revenue source for the regency. "The money should be collected by Tangerang regency, not by the West Java Land Transportation Agency."

Tangerang regency, now under the auspices of the newly- established Banten province, was part of West Java Province.

"The Tangerang regency should have taken over the collection of the fees without waiting for the handover from West Java. The collection of vehicle test fees is in line with implementation of the regional autonomy," said Eby.

Eby admitted, however, that a regulation for vehicle test fee collection had yet to be completed. "The draft bill is at the legislature, hopefully it will be passed into law soon.

Reports said that the West Java Land Transportation Agency continued to collect vehicle test fees at the Serang, Lebak, Pandeglang regencies and the towns of Tangerang and Cilegon, which are all now within Banten province.

Meanwhile, head of the Tangerang Land Transportation Agency, Muchtar Lutfi, said that transfer of authority would be completed in January. "This is a transition period. We need the official transfer of personnel, equipment, funding and documents relating to vehicle test procedures from West Java." (41/sur)