After a tug-of-war with public transportation operators, the city administration have decided to reduce public transportation fares following the recent fuel price cuts.
Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo sent a recommendation letter to the City Council proposing a reduction of fares between Rp 200 (18 US cents) and Rp 400.
Fauzi recommended an average 10.33 percent cut of transportation fares for small, medium and economy-class buses.
Fares for limited-seat buses will be reduced to Rp 2,600 from Rp 3,000. Economy-class bus passengers will have to pay Rp 2,300, down from the Rp 2,500. Fares for minivans will be slashed to Rp 2,600 from Rp 4,000. Student fares will be reduced to Rp 1,000 from Rp 1,500.
The secretary to the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) Jakarta, T.R. Panjaitan, said the organization agreed on the new public transportation fares proposed by the city administration to the City Council.
“Basically, we agree with the [proposed] cut. It was agreed upon during our meeting last week,” Panjaitan told The Jakarta Post.
Last week, Organda rejected the 19.17 percent, or Rp 500, fare cut recommended by the City Transportation Council (DTKJ).
According to Organda, the recommendation were considerably higher than the government’s calculation of 10 percent.
Panjaitan said Organda initially rejected the fare cut because public transportation operators had to cope with the soaring prices of spare parts.
“According to our calculations, a decrease in fuel prices does not automatically lead to public transportation fare cuts because there are many other things to consider,” he said.
“However, due to public pressure, we agree with a cut of between Rp 200 to Rp 400, as long as the city administration reduces its levies.”
Meanwhile, the executive director of Transportation Study Institute (Instran), Darmaningtyas, expressed skepticism.
“The [fare] cut is rational, but it will be hard to implement in the field,” Darmaningtyas said.
Many bus crews will find it difficult to provide small change for passengers.
Darmaningtyas said Jakarta’s public transportation was already the cheapest among other cities in the country, including Yogyakarta, Denpasar, Surabaya and Semarang.
“The load factor of Jakarta’s public transportation is very low.”
“Modes of public transportation only have passengers during rush hour, in the morning and the afternoon. During the remaining hours, they are usually left empty,” he said.
He estimated that the number of daily passengers in Jakarta was equal to 40 percent of the seats available.
“If public transportation owners do not recover their costs, they will resort to cannibalism,” he said.
Darmaningtyas said the government’s fuel prices cuts were unnecessary.
“The government should have maintained the fuel price and used the surplus to provide more subsidies in sectors such education, health as well as for the nine basic food staples.”
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