Water company to up rates for thousands of customers

JAKARTA: Private water firm PT Aetra Air Jakarta will impose massive rate increases on 3,000 of its customers in June, an official says.

“We sent notification letters to 3,000 customers in April and gave them a month to file a complaint,” Aetra’s corporate secretary Yosua L. Tobing said Wednesday after a closed-door meeting with Commission C of the City Council overseeing the city budget.

Head of the commission Ridho Kamaluddin said residents in areas with strong water pressure would see their rates increase.

“If adjustments are made in areas that have bad water pressure, this should be reported to us,” he said.

Yosua said the company was basing the new rates on a survey it conducted on 7,000 of its customers that assessed property types and property development in their areas.

He said 75 of the company's customers would see their rates decrease.

The other 2,925 customers, he said, would see their statuses changed from group 2A1 to group 2A2, meaning their rates would climb from the subsidized rate of Rp 1,050 (US$ 11 cents) per 10 cubic meters of water to Rp 3,550 – an increase of 338 percent. -- JP