In a session on Monday, the executive submitted its proposals for 31 bylaws. Meanwhile, not all of the council factions have submitted proposals yet, hence they agreed on additional time for internal discussions.

Jakarta Legal Bureau head Yayan Yuhana said the proposed list included four mandatory bylaws related to the city budget and another 12 to be prioritized.

Seven of the prioritized bylaws are related to the city’s assets and finances, namely parking tax, street lighting tax, retribution, management of city assets, building and land acquisition tax (BPHTB), regional financial management and electronic road pricing. 

Three others are related to spatial planning, namely detailed spatial planning and zoning (RDTRZ), the 2030 city spatial plan (RTRW) and coastal area and small islands planning. 

The remaining two pertain to civil administration and disabilities. 

 “[Twelve draft bylaws] are prioritized, because some have been discussed this year, so we will continue their deliberation. […] Meanwhile, bylaws related to taxation [are also prioritized] as they will increase our region’s income,” Yayan told reporters after the meeting. 

The 2019 city budget is on the brink of a deficit as the Jakarta administration has yet to receive Rp 6.39 trillion (US$455 million) in profit-sharing funds from the central government. The funds are meant to come from regional taxes collected by the city administration and sent to the central government.

The undisbursed funds resulted in the administration using last year’s unused funds (SILPA) to cover spending needs.

The administration, through the Jakarta Tax and Levy Agency (BPRD), seeks to boost tax collection. It has collected Rp 34.11 trillion as of Nov. 14 out of this year’s tax collection target of Rp 44.54 trillion. 

The head of the council’s legislation body, Pantas Nainggolan from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the councilors expected to have the proposed number of draft bylaws reduced by the executive.

“We [the executive and legislative] must not set the target high, but productivity is lacking. That’s what happened in the previous council term,” he said. “But still, hopefully, we can achieve quality and quantity with the endorsed bylaws.”

The 2014 to 2019 Jakarta Council only passed 35 bylaws of a total target of 136 stated in the legislation program.

As a precaution, Pantas suggested, next year’s legislation program should only include bylaws in the legislation program if the academic draft was ready and considered urgent for immediate deliberation.

Yayan claimed that 29 draft documents of the 31 proposed were available. 

The council and the city administration should approve the legislation program before the endorsement of next year’s city budget, Pantas said. 

The deliberation of the 2020 budget should be completed by Nov. 30, a deadline set by the Home Ministry. However, the council and the administration had yet to finalize their discussion of the budget ceiling as of Monday. The approved budget ceiling would then be the basis of the city budget deliberations, which included programs and activities.

Council speaker Prasetyo Edi Marsudi from the PDI-P stressed the importance of simplifying overlapping regulations as well as synchronizing city bylaws and government regulations, citing a similar purpose of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s effort to simplify investment procedures in the city.

“We expect the [proposed] bylaws to include other relevant draft bylaws, so that regulatory harmonization can take place,” he said.

Indonesian Parliament Watch (Formappi) researcher Lucius Karus said bylaws related to financial issues were as important as other issues. However, he suggested that the councilors define public necessities prior to selecting bylaws to be prioritized.

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