E-payment to increase revenue from parking fees

Mustaqim Adamrah ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 04/29/2008 12:40 PM  |  City

The city transportation agency is planning to implement an electronic payment system for on-street parking to avoid more losses in revenue from parking fees, an official said Monday.

"The new system will require smart cards. People will just swipe their card through a machine on the street to pay parking fees," said the agency's deputy head, Udar Pristono.

Pristono said the new system, which is still being reviewed, was expected to hold motorists more accountable than the current ticket system.

If the agency finds it feasible, it will apply the system in 517 different locations that together provide 16,000 legal on-street parking spaces, he said.

Pristono also said a company had offered to implement the system for the agency, but he refused to name it.

The administration has not been able to collect sufficient revenue from parking fees for the past few years. Last year, it projected a revenue of Rp 20 billion (US$2.17 million) from city parking fees but was only able to collect Rp 16 billion.

Deputy Governor Prijanto said he was optimistic the system would boost the city's revenue from parking fees.

"I hope we can implement the system this year with the help of an organization to supervise it," he said.

Nurmansjah Lubis, the secretary of Commission B on economic affairs at the city council, has opposed the idea, saying "it will be a waste".

"We implemented a similar system on Jl. Haji Agus Salim (formerly Jl. Sabang) in Central Jakarta in 2006 but it was not effective because parking lot attendants damaged the devices," he said.

Nurmansjah said he feared the new plan would face a similar situation if the administration did not try to overcome the problems with parking attendants.

Nurmansjah said the administration should not only consider the new system, but also penalties for anyone who attempted to damage the devices.

"Or the administration could delegate parking management to private companies. We could require them to set a revenue target every year. If the private companies fail to meet their target, we could find replacements."

However, he said, in one way or another it would be hard to profit from parking fees.

He said this year the administration aimed to acquire another Rp 20 billion from parking fees, but it had allocated Rp 40 billion for the operation of parking management units that use the ticket system.

The parking management units are the responsibility of the transportation agency.

"It means the administration also needs to reduce parking management costs to increase revenue from parking," he said.

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