The minister denied that the new policy aimed to increase the revenue of Toll Road Business Agency (BUJT) and stressed instead that the policy would help smooth toll road traffic.

“[The integration] will start in July. Hopefully, the users could understand the objective of integrating the payment [systems],” Basuki said in Jakarta on Monday, as quoted by kompas.com. He added that the policy would significantly decrease the number of tollgates, five of which would be eliminated in the plan.

Short-distance JORR users protested the policy, as they would need to pay higher tolls at a 30.7 percent increase after the integration, from Rp 9,500 (67 US cents) to Rp 15,000. Meanwhile, long-distance JORR users would benefit from the new system.

The integrated payment system means that JORR users would be required to pay only once: Group I vehicle (car) users would pay Rp 15,000, Group II and III (trucks and buses) Rp 22,500, and Group IV and V (heavy-load vehicles) would pay Rp 30,000.

BPJP head Herry Tri Saputra Zuna said the majority of JORR users, about 62 percent, were long-distance motorists, while the short-distance motorists composed 32 percent of JORR users.

“So the majority of JOOR users will benefit from the integrated payment,” he said, adding that motorists that traveled long distances on the toll road could pay up to Rp 34,000 under the current system. (bbn)

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