Taxi fares to increase by average of 36 percent

Taxi fares to increase by average of 36 percent

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Taxi passengers in the capital will soon have to spend more money
for their daily transportation as the city administration plans
to announce new taxi fares, with an average increase of 36
percent.

Assistant to city secretary for development affairs Ma'mun
Amin told the press on Monday that the city secretary's economic
bureau had submitted the draft decree on new taxi fares to
Governor Sutiyoso.

"The draft decree on new taxi fares prepared by the economic
bureau has been on the table of the governor," he said, but
Ma'mun refused to elaborate on the figure.

According to a source in the administration, the new fares
will be 33 percent higher for the flag fall, from Rp 3,000 (33 US
cents) to Rp 4,000, and 38.5 percent higher for the per-kilometer
charge, from Rp 1,300 to Rp 1,800, while the waiting charges will
charge will also go up 38.5 percent from Rp 13,000 to Rp 18,000
per hour.

The new fares are actually lower than those demanded by the
Jakarta chapter of Land Transportation Owners Association
(Organda) -- Rp 5,700 for flag fall, Rp 2,200 per kilometer trip,
and Rp 22,000 an hour for waiting.

Organda chairman Herry Roti cautiously welcomed the taxi fare
hike, saying his organization had no other choice, but to accept
the administration's decision.

"We only hope that the new fares will be immediately enforced
because taxi drivers and operators have been waiting a long time
for this," he said, while adding that the drivers had complained
over the significant drop of income following fuel price hikes
last month.

The price of premium gasoline increased from Rp 1,800 to Rp
2,400 on March 1.

Meanwhile, chairman of the City Transportation Council (DTK)
Soetanto Soehodo said that his organization did not propose any
figures for taxi fares because taxis were not categorized as
economy class public transportation and thus did not concern the
DTK.

According to Soetanto, however, the recommendation of his
organization is that the administration should only decide the
ceiling fare so that taxi operators have the opportunity to
decide the fares based on their respective service quality.

"We think that setting a ceiling fare would be very fair
because the service quality of each taxi operator is quite
different," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

He said with such a ceiling price, taxi operators would
consider their respective level of service before making
decisions on their fares.

"Those that have good services will take the ceiling fares,
while those who have lower service quality can decide on lower
fares. Such a mechanism will be fair both for users and the
operators," he added.

Sutiyoso said early in the morning that he had not read the
draft decree on new taxi fares, but promised to sign it
immediately after he got it.