Transportation permits issuance is big business
JAKARTA (JP): Officials of the City Land Transportation Agency (DLLAJ) have acknowledged there is a big difference between official route permit fees and the charges found in the route permit business.
According to 1992 Municipality Regulation No. 9, owners of public transport vehicles are required to pay administration and route permit fees.
The regulation states that the annual route permit fee is Rp 100,000 (US$40.80) for large buses, Rp 75,000 for medium-sized buses and Rp 50,000 for minivans.
Drivers, cooperatives and owners of minivans and medium-sized buses have said they have paid between Rp 1 million and Rp 11 million, depending on whether routes had many passengers or not.
Administration fees in the 1992 regulation include a five-year transportation business permit that costs Rp 30,000 for big buses, Rp 25,000 for medium-sized buses and Rp 20,000 for minivans.
However head of DLLAJ's transportation division, H.M. Djuhdi, denied that fees of millions of rupiah went to agency officials.
"That's out of our control," Djuhdi said, adding that the agency was not lenient in issuing permits because they were strict with legal procedures.
A researcher in transportation issues, Sonny Sulaksono, said yesterday official route permit fees lacked transparency.
The fees, reaching millions of rupiah for a route permit, claimed by bus company owners, he said, "is actually the estimated profit from a public transport vehicle sold to another party."
Asked whether the business in route permits was a black market, Sonny said there was no rule against buying and selling route permits.
"So it's not a black market, but it's getting there," he said.
During the past week, drivers have alleged that DLLAJ and the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) have leniently issued route permits.
Upset
On some routes drivers were upset with new additional fleets plying similar roads, while in other areas rumors of new buses sparked more strikes.
Drivers of M16 minivans plying between Kampung Melayu and Pasar Minggu had said new minivans in their area were operating without permits from DLLAJ.
Along the Tanah Abang-Joglo route in West Jakarta, drivers of the B92 Metromini buses had said new fleets of B17 minivans run by the Koperasi Wahana Kalpika cooperative had taken about 300 meters of their 18-kilometer route.
DLLAJ's traffic transportation control subdivision head, Oriyanto Supardal, said overlapping routes were impossible to prevent. He said normally a route could not be monopolized by one bus fleet.
Another agency official said some drivers were angered by competition that only overlapped 100 meters of their route.
About route permit issuance, the DLLAJ official said the permit could be transferred to other owners and to other routes and other vehicles as long as the transfer was reported to the agency.
"But I hear that many old vehicles...are still operating while their permits have been transferred to new ones," he said. DLLAJ chief J.P. Sepang had alleged that this was why drivers were angry over too many vehicles.
Oriyanto said, "If there is enough proof, we will investigate owners and warn them."
Minivans are considered unsuitable to operate properly when they have been in operation for six years, he said.
Djuhdi said extending route permits and replacing old vehicles with new public transportation vehicles, or transferring ownership of route permits, required several steps that hindered the practice of illegal levies.
He refused to give further details.
Djuhdi said the number of minivans allowed to operate in the city was 6,125 vehicles which ply 77 different routes. Sepang had said the designated limit of public transport vehicles had not been reached.
In all, the set figure for public transportation buses, including minivans, allowed to operate in the city is 20,738 vehicles on 568 routes. (10/anr)