Council considers increasing parking fees at shopping centers

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 10/02/2007 3:45 PM  |  Jakarta

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta City Council says it may soon raise parking fees at malls and shopping centers.

The commission overseeing city revenue has said it has recommended a hike in parking fees to Rp 3,000 (about 32 U.S. cents) per hour -- a 50 percent increase -- to cover increases in electricity and the minimum wage.

According to commission head Daniel Abdullah Sani, it is time to increase the fee as parking operators can no longer be expected to shoulder increasing operation costs.

Despite other unpopular policies over recent years, Jakarta had been a haven for private car owners, with a number of decent expressways and cheap city-center parking. Jakartans who can afford to, lease or buy cars instead of dealing with the city's cramped public transportation. Now, with more vehicles and fewer lanes and parking spaces, the administration will reevaluate.

As a result of its major ongoing public transportation network expansion -- including the busway -- freeways are becoming less free.

And this new parking free increase certainly will not please car owners.

Already this year motorists have seen on-street parking costs rise to the level of off-street parking -- Rp 2,000 per hour.

""This is inevitable and we hope that motorists understand our reasoning,"" Daniel said.

The administration says with the parking increase it can reduce the number of vehicles on the streets and improve services at that same time.

The council made the recommendation after meeting last week with the Shopping Center Business Association which proposed a 150 percent hike (to Rp 5,000) in off-street parking to keep business healthy.

Despite the proposed increase, no significant improvement is expected in parking services at malls and shopping centers.

The increase is to be discussed between the Parking Board and City Revenue Agency this Wednesday.

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