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span class="caption" style="width: 312px;">New plate numbers?: The Jakarta administration’s plan to impose a restriction that would limit cars on streets based on even-odd license plate numbers in March 2013 is seen by many to have loopholes for cheating. Some predict that car owners will resort to sidewalk plate maker services to make additional plates so they can use the same car every day. JP/Wendra Ajistyatama If you plan to outsmart the city administration’s upcoming odd-even license-plate system by making a fake, alternate license plate, you should think again.

First, it will not be that easy to fool the police, who plan to install CCTV in several spots to monitor possible fraud. Second, you may find it difficult to find unofficial license plate makers who will help you commit the crime.

The license-plate makers say that the new policy to reduce the number of cars in the capital might bring them more trouble than profits. Demand will likely rise, but they said they would not benefit from it.

Ahmad, 33, a license-plate maker in front of Sunan Giri Market, East Jakarta, acknowledged that the odd-even policy would become effective in March 2013, but shook his head when asked whether the plan would be lucrative for him. “A legal license plate should have the logo of National Police’s traffic unit and forging the logo would only spell disaster for me. I make license plates only for temporary use,” Ahmad explained.

Ahmad, who has been making plates for a living for more than five years, said that he had always been tough in running his business, including checking the vehicle licenses before accepting a request.

Ahmad said that his customers were usually those who wanted to spruce up unkempt or broken plates or who had just bought new cars and were “impatient enough to hit the roads before the traffic police’s SAMSAT [The Integrated Administration Service] issued their plates in one or two months”.

By paying Ahmad Rp. 70,000 (US$7.20) for a pair of plates, car owners can have their plates made in two hours. He said, however, that making a false plate would be too risky and he did not want to have any trouble with the police.

Nono, 43, a plate maker in Palmerah, West Jakarta, echoed Ahmad. “What I know is, we can be charged with counterfeiting if we do so. I heard of some fellow plate makers who were arrested and jailed after making plates with fake police numbers, which turned out were used for criminal activities,” Nono said.

Nono admitted that he had several times made license plates that he knew would be accounted for dual-use, usually by requests from some officials who wanted to dodge the policy that prohibited official cars from using subsidized fuel.

“But they have the cars and have the licenses and it is they who will be ticketed for using the plates. Making a plate with fake police numbers, however, is a whole different thing.”

The Jakarta administration is planning to impose a restriction that would limit cars on streets based on even-odd license plate numbers, beginning in March 2013 at the latest. The policy will temporarily replace the current “3-in-1” car pooling zones and will be effective from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays. It would also affect roads used by the Transjakarta Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system and a number of other main roads.

Jakarta Traffic Police deputy chief Adj. Comr. Wahyono said that he acknowledged the policy would be prone to chicanery and therefore anticipatory measures had been planned.

Wahyono said that the unit planned to disseminate the information on the policy to plate makers, to warn them not to make false plates.

“We will either disseminate the information door to door, visiting each of the plate makers or gather them in our police precincts and warn them that both the car owners and the plate makers can be charged with counterfeiting and face up to six years’ imprisonment,” said Wahyono.

Wahyono added that car owners could also be charged under article 280 of the 2009 law on traffic with a punishment of two months’ imprisonment and a fine of Rp 500,000. (aml/fzm)