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Toll Road Fees Set to Rise Next Week
Anita Rachman | August 28, 2009

A toll road flyover in Jakarta. (Photo: Yudhi Sukma Wijaya, JG) A toll road flyover in Jakarta. (Photo: Yudhi Sukma Wijaya, JG)
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Motorists may have to start paying higher fees for the privilege of using often clogged toll roads as early as next Friday if the government pushes through with its plan.

Nurdin Manurung, who heads the Toll Road Agency (BPJT), told a committee hearing at the House of Representatives that the government decree allowing toll road operators to raise fees would be issued on Monday.

He was quoted on the Web site of the Ministry of Public Works as saying that the BPJT was recommending that the new tariffs become effective next Friday, and that they apply to toll roads in Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi.

The fee increases will be based on local inflation rates over the past two years, ranging between 12.7 percent and 18.6 percent, and on the level of minimal service standards met by the toll road operators, Nurdin said.

The agency proposed classifying the toll roads into four categories — those having met minimum service standards, those yet to meet them, those requiring integration from multiple toll points to single points and those needing urgent repair.

The plan immediately drew criticism from the country’s largest consumer foundation.

Daryatmo, an executive of the Indonesian Consumer Association (YLKI), said that if the government was going to allow toll increases, there should be an accompanying improvement in service and quality.

He said that YLKI observations found that inner city toll roads, such as the ones in Jakarta, had shown some deterioration.

“In reality, the increase in tariffs is not proportional to service improvements,” Daryatmo said.

He added that while toll roads were supposed to offer shorter travel times, “the average speed possible on an inner city toll road has been steadily decreasing.”

Daryatmo said the government should conduct more thorough observations before allowing the toll hikes. “It shouldn’t be a blanket increase. It should be adjusted depending on the road,” he said. “If traffic is still slow on a particular stretch of road, well, it wouldn’t be fair to raise the fee there.”

Moreover, he said that toll road operators should pay more attention to meeting minimum service standards.