YLKI hails newly proposed parking scheme
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) hailed a proposed parking scheme which includes insurance for stolen or damaged vehicles.
The foundation's chairperson, Tini Hadad, urged the municipality to give its full support to the scheme to assure motorists' protection while parking their vehicles.
"Currently, there is no protection for motorists," Tini said yesterday.
The parking scheme, which includes insurance and a sports fund, was proposed by PT Kartika Talang Mas to the City Council on Monday.
Under the proposal, a parking fee of Rp 1,000 (U.S. 41 cents) will be charged for the first hour and Rp 500 for each subsequent hour for sedans. Motorcycles would be charged a flat fee of Rp 500.
In the scheme, the initial fee of Rp 1,000 for cars would be divided into Rp 500 for parking, Rp 300 for insurance and Rp 200 for the National Sports Council (KONI), while Rp 500 for motorcycle parking would comprise Rp 300 for parking, Rp 100 for insurance and Rp 100 for KONI.
An earlier city proposal to increase parking fees received criticism because it did not provide insurance.
Tini said motorists would not object to higher parking fees as long as they felt secure about their vehicles.
She said insurance companies involved in the scheme should be carefully selected.
"An insurance company should really guarantee it will compensate for a stolen or damaged vehicle," Tini said.
However she questioned the need to raise sports funds through parking.
"There is no point in raising sports funds through parking if the public is still required to support sports events, such as buying stickers for the coming SEA Games," Tini said.
Besides, there are other things which badly need funding, such as education, she said.
As host for the 19th SEA Games from Oct. 11 to Oct. 19, the government is selling stickers to the public for between Rp 1,000 and Rp 50,000 to help finance the Rp 100 billion sports event.
Stickers are included in various bills, including water, electricity and telephone bills, as well as entry to entertainment establishments. Stickers must also be bought by grocery shoppers spending more than Rp 50,000 and those applying for land titles.
Governor Surjadi Soedirdja said that the city welcomed the new proposal to manage city parking.
"But no decisions have been made... Proposals to manage city parking have to go through the City Council," Surjadi said.
He said some private companies have proposed to manage parking, but none of them have been approved yet.
Tini said if the proposal was approved, there should be a detailed use of funds by the management.
Tini urged the city and the council to carefully evaluate the proposal before making it effective.
Several companies who proposed to manage city parking lost interest after further evaluation of chronic parking problems, such as the illegal, widespread collection of parking fees. (ste)