Telkom needs one month to implement new tariff

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned telecommunications company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) said it would need at least one month before it could implement the hike in fixed line telephone services this year.

Telkom's Investor Relations Manager Setiawan Sulistyono told The Jakarta Post on Friday that once the government gives the go- ahead for the hike, the company needed one month for technical preparations and informing the public about the new tariff.

However, he said that the fixed-line operator (Telkom) had not been officially informed of the intended hike.

"If (the Government's approval) has been given, we are very, very happy," Setiawan said.

The government plans to increase telephone tariffs by 21.67 percent in 2001, 15.60 percent in 2002, and 8.22 percent in 2003.

On Wednesday the House of Representatives approved the hike and left the time for implementation to the government.

Setiawan said that a 21.67 percent increase in the telephone tariff this year would not be counter-productive for Telkom's business, as the hike was calculated from the weighted average between the local call tariff, local long distance tariff and monthly subscription charge.

"So there will be some tariffs that go up, and others that decrease," he said.

Setiawan said that so far, changes to the telephone tariff had not made a significant difference to the number of subscribers.

"We had a very large number of line cancellations in 1998, but that was mainly due to the economic conditions at the time," he explained.

Line cancellations in 1998 reached 272,712 subscriber lines, the number picked up in 1999 to 232,343 lines and there were 176,478 subscriber lines canceled last year.

Telkom's shares were higher on news that the House has approved the government's plans to increase rates for fixed line telephone services.

Telkom's shares were up Rp 75 in midday trading but closed unchanged at Rp 2,425, with 39.75 million shares changing hands on the regular market.(tnt)