Quite frankly, this ongoing saga of parking fees is becoming more like an Indonesian sinetron (soap opera) script as time goes by. Has the Jakarta administration been walking around for the past couple of years with its eyes closed?

I have lived in Jakarta since October 2008 and cannot once recall having paid what is now being advised as the “correct” parking fees.

My Jakarta friends tell me that when the fees were increased in 2004, most operators of parking facilities saw this as an opportunity to extend the new Rp 2,000 (around 20 US cents) for the first hour and for each subsequent hour as well.

In the past two weeks, I have paid what I had always thought to be the “standard Rp 2,000 for every hour parked” fee at Plaza Indonesia, Emporium Pluit, Seasons City, Mal Ciputra, Mal Taman Anggrek, Central Park and WTC Complex.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to publish the names of the parking operators who have, in fact, dropped their rates to — or have always charged — the regulatory tariffs. I suspect this would be a very small list indeed! Judging by the difficulty I have encountered in securing a parking space at a number of these facilities, I should suspect that the fees charged are not of much concern to local car owners.

Does the city plan to do anything about the on-street “parking touts” who insist of a payment of Rp 3,000 regardless of time parked — and there are plenty of these around — and for whom a receipt/ticket is an unknown commodity?

Parking fees in Jakarta are particularly modest compared with other capital cities worldwide (just park for a couple of hours in Melbourne, Australia to see how modest they really are!).

Having said that, virtually all other cities have an effective system of public transportation in place which can be promoted as an alternative to driving and parking a private vehicle.

The inflated parking prices, particularly in inner city areas, are an effective way to convert drivers to take public transport.

Before compelling parking operators to lower fees which have been considered by patrons to be acceptable for a considerable period of time, thereby encouraging even more cars onto its road system, perhaps the Jakarta government should devote its energies and finances towards improving Jakarta’s public transportation?

When Jakarta is in a position to offer a remotely acceptable alternative to the use of personal cars and motorbikes then — and only then — its government could without argument increase its official parking rates citywide.

The parking operators quite rightly say that the official fees have not been adjusted since “the 2004 gubernatorial decree on parking fees, indoor parking spaces and multi-story parking lots”.
How many charges levied by the Jakarta government itself have remained unchanged since 2004?

There is an old saying “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it”; leave the existing parking charges as they are — by all means decree that this is the “new official rate” and concentrate on the development of an effective alternative to the use of private vehicles.

Les Williams
Jakarta

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