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here is no guarantee that drivers working for ride-hailing app companies such as Grab and Uber will be free from official crackdowns across the capital, even after the government confirmed that the firms had been granted a two-month grace period during which both are expected to work out all legalities.

Jakarta Transportation Agency head Andri Yansyah said Saturday that the authorities would continue to crack down on the vehicles of companies that continue to operate illegally, adding that Grab and Uber were not considered an exception.

'€œMy focus is not merely Grab and Uber. We will take firm action against vehicles from any company that operates illegally. Any company means that Grab and Uber are included,'€ Andri said.

'€œ[What I mean by] firm action is that we will confiscate the vehicles,'€ he added.

Grab and Uber are companies that cooperate with private car owners in order to operate app-based transportation. Car owners include both car rental companies and individual owners.

Andri did not say anything about ojek (motorcycle taxis) that also operate as public transportation without any legal documentation.

Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said on Friday that Uber and Grab would be permitted to continue their operations for a further two months while the companies endeavor to fulfill all legalities, such as creating a legal entity for all rented cars employed by the operation as regulated by the Land Transportation Law.

The law stipulates that public transportation vehicles must be provided by either state-owned enterprises, province-owned companies or private companies.

If Grab and Uber fail to attain legal status within two months, Jonan said the government will ban cars rented by the companies from taking passengers.

The government has given Grab and Uber two options; to register a legal entity for their cars or join with an existing transportation company.

In an effort to comply with the Land Transportation Law, both Grab and Uber previously established cooperatives for their car owners.

Transportation Ministry staff expert Hadi M. Djurait confirmed that the Transportation Ministry wanted cars from the two companies to be allowed to operate, as seen by the two-month grace period.

He acknowledged that enforcing the Land Transportation Law is the prerogative of the agency, not the ministry.

'€œSo, Andri'€™s statement should be seen as an effort to force Grab and Uber to immediately arrange permits for the cooperatives they had established for their rented cars,'€ he told The Jakarta Post.

The proliferation of ride-sharing companies has caused outrage among conventional taxi companies. Taxi drivers working for conventional taxi companies protest that the app-based companies operate illegally and claim that their income decreased significantly since app-based transportation began to operate in the capital. Conventional taxi drivers carried out massive demonstrations across several areas of Jakarta on Tuesday to demand the government ban the operation of app-based transportation.

Several of the rallies turned violent after participants accosted taxis that had continued to operate, smashing windows and hauling the drivers out of their vehicles. The Jakarta Police reported that 150 Blue Bird taxis had been damaged during the city-wide protest.

While the demonstration had been organized in order to demand the ban on taxi-hailing app companies, violent participants also targeted fellow conventional taxis and ojek drivers working for app-based companies such as Go-Jek. Several participants were caught beating such drivers.

The police have thus far named five suspects for allegedly having incited the violence, disrupting public order and damaging property.