YLKI criticizes parking fee hike
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) on Monday criticized Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso for an on-the-sly hike in off-street parking charges of up to 100 percent, saying that the policy violated the consumer's right to information.
An executive with the YLKI, Tulus Abadi, said that Law No. 8/1999 on consumer protection clearly stated that consumers had the right to information on policies made by the government on goods and services.
"Consumers have the right to reject a policy made without considering the Consumer Protection Law," he said.
Sutiyoso signed Gubernatorial Decree No. 98/2003 on Dec. 5 to provide the legal basis for the charge increase in response to demands from building owners and private parking operators voiced in the middle of this year.
The Jakarta Administration never announced the gubernatorial decree until the press sought confirmation about the charge increases on Monday following protests by a number of motorists who were shocked by the new policy.
The decree provides, among other things, that the new charge for a four-wheeled vehicle is between Rp 1,000 and Rp 2,000 per hour as compared to the current charge of Rp 1,000 per hour. The parking charge for a motorcycle remains the same at Rp 500.
Parking charges for buses and trucks will be between Rp 2,000 and Rp 3,000, as compared to Rp 2,000 at present.
The decree does not mention when it will come into effect, but the head of the City Parking Management Agency (BP Parkir), Yani Mulyadi, stressed the new tariffs would come into effect in early January after his office conducted a publicity campaign.
"I will need two weeks for a publicity campaign, particularly to inform parking operators about the charge increase. It will be implemented early next year," he said.
However, a number of off-street parking places have already introduced the higher tariffs. They include Plaza Glodok and Gajah Mada Plaza in West Jakarta, Hayam Wuruk Plaza, Carrefour Duta Merlin and Plaza Senayan in Central Jakarta.
Yani advised parking operators in those buildings to cancel the increases until they had been officially announced. He threatened to close the parking lots if the operators ignored his calls.
The city official has previously often made such threats but never taken any action against the parking operators.
According to Tulus, the public should have been allowed to make submissions before the decision was taken to increase parking charges.
He also criticized the Jakarta administration for only targeting parking operators in its public campaigns. He stressed that the consumers, who would be the most affected, should be the main targets of such campaigns.
"It is not a public campaign if it is only directed at parking operators and conducted after the policy has been formulated. It is then only an announcement," he added.
A councillor also criticized the performance of BP Parkir as the city always had to subsidize it in collecting parking charges.
Dani Anwar, a councillor from the Justice Party, said that by December, BP Parkir had only collected some Rp 14 billion while the city has targeted the collection of Rp 32 billion in parking charges. Last year, BP Parker managed to collect Rp 16 billion of the targeted Rp 32 billion.
The city also had to subsidize BP Parkir to the tune of Rp 21 billion this year in respect of its routine expenditure.
"How can an agency tasked with raising revenue from parking fees still have to be subsidized," he asked incredulously.