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ublicly-listed taxi operator PT Centris Multipersada Pratama may delay the company’s plan to upgrade its fleet this year as the government’s plan to require public vehicles to use gas instead of gasoline could affect the upgrade program.

“We have to study the plan because we don’t want to take another wrong road again. We have suffered from the government’s changing policies,” Centris president director Sundiarto Purnamadjaja said during his company’s public expose on Friday.

Sundiarto recalled that the company’s decision to purchase new cars in 2005 was hit hard by government policy during that year when it doubled the fuel price to Rp 4,500 from Rp 2,400 per liter. The increase in the price of fuel hurt the company’s business because of the resulting decline in the number of passengers.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is planning to convert fuel consumption of all public transportation vehicles in Jakarta to gas this year. Vehicles can use compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquid gas for vehicles (LGV). However, car owners should have a converter kit to allow their engines to burn gas instead of gasoline.

“The government usually decides on policy without performing consultation with transportation companies. Therefore, we have to think carefully about investment,” Centris’ president director Andri Tedjadharma said.

Sundiarto said that his company badly needed to revitalize its fleet to stay competitive with other taxi operators which had started to renew their armadas.

He cited that Centris had not yet replaced its taxicabs, comprising of Toyota Limo units, since 2005. “We want to upgrade our fleet. We have seen our revenue dropped by 36.6 percent as a result of an unproductive fleet,” Sundiarto said.

Centris reported revenue of Rp 8.11 billion in the first nine months of 2011, falling from Rp 12.80 billion in the same period of 2010. The company suffered from a net loss of Rp 2.41 billion during the January to September period of 2011, compared to a net loss of Rp 2 billion during the same period of 2010.

Centris currently has about 800 taxicabs operating in Jakarta and the Greater Jakarta area and in other cities, including Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Semarang.

Andri said that Centris wanted to purchase up to 1,000 new taxicabs.

“It doesn’t mean that we will have 1,800 units, because there are many taxicabs that should be replaced,” Andri said.

He cited that Centris would have to allocate up to Rp 200 billion to purchase new cars as each taxi would need an investment of around Rp 200 million.

“Banks are ready to disburse loans for us. Still, we have to be careful in our investments,” Andri said. (rcf)