Is It The Effective Bid to Cut Jakarta Jams?

Jakarta, Indonesia (News Today) - Drivers in Jakarta are to face a rising tax bill for each vehicle they own from January in a bid to ease worsening traffic jams in the Indonesian capital, a spokesman said Tuesday.

“The Jakarta city administration will impose higher tax for owners of multiple motorised vehicles starting from January 3, 2011,” Jakarta administration spokesman Cucu Ahmad Kurnia said.

“We hope the higher taxes will reduce traffic congestion as the number of vehicle users in Jakarta is already high. Hopefully, more people will use public transportation,” he said.

The number of vehicles in Jakarta and its environs has almost tripled in the last decade to more than 9.5 million according to the Indonesian Transport Society. Under the new rules, the present 1.5 percent tax level remains for the first car and motorcycle a person owns.

This rises to 2.0 percent for their second, 2.5 percent for their third and 4.0 percent for every subsequent vehicle. Authorities have been looking for ways to address problems in greater Jakarta, which has around 20 million inhabitants, including shifting the capital to a less populated area in the archipelago.

Experts predict the city, which has an ageing bus network and no underground train system, will reach total gridlock by 2014, with every main road and backstreet clogged with barely moving cars. Drivers will see their costs rise further in March when the subsidy for petrol is cut, leaving a litre (a quarter of a gallon) of higher grade fuel costing around 9,000 rupiah (one dollar), up from the current price of 4,500 rupiah.

Source : kompas

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