Tax fuel to help ease traffic jams: Expert

Tax fuel to help ease traffic jams: Expert

SURABAYA, East Java (JP): Johan Silas, an academic and city
planner, has proposed that the government impose a fuel tax to
ease traffic jams in several cities.

"I propose that fuel should be taxed. Taxation will not reduce
the purchase of cars but it will reduce the usage of cars. People
in cities will use their cars only at weekends," Silas told
reporters here last weekend.

He said that in Singapore and Hong Kong, where the prices of
cars are among the highest in the world, the high car prices and
high taxes did not reduce the number of cars being purchased: "If
people need cars they will buy cars no matter what."

The government, he said, must improve the amount and quality
of public transportation: "This is the real challenge."

Traffic jams are a major problem in Jakarta, Surabaya and
Bandung and other large cities of Java.

In Jakarta, where traffic jams are getting worse, there are
plans to build a 14.5 kilometer subway system, linking Blok M in
South Jakarta and Kota in West Jakarta.

Besides building a better public transportation system, Silas
said that more city infrastructure alone would not solve the
traffic jams. Nor would increases in luxury taxes.

"In Bangkok, there are three-story toll roads, and the traffic
is still bad," he said.

The Jakarta administration has planned to impose various new
taxes, including fuel taxes, to help finance the development of a
subway and to subsidies its fares. (27/rid)