JAKARTA: The Public Service Obligation (PSO) subsidy for MRT Jakarta in this year’s regional budget (APBD), which has been cut to 536.7 billion rupiah or about US$32mil, is to be increased to about 700 billion rupiah, according to MRT president director Tuhiyat.
The increase will be formalised in the revised APBD, slated for implementation mid-year.
“The sum of 536.7 billion rupiah is the initial stage; there will be a revised APBD later,” he said in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The figure remains below the 730 billion rupiah of realised PSO funding last year, which was well below the 944.32 billion rupiah originally allocated for last year.
Tuhiyat noted that the decline in the PSO subsidy over the past five years was correlated with the transportation network’s rising ridership, emphasising that maintaining budget stability was crucial now to boost passenger numbers further.
To support this growth, he outlined plans for continued service improvements, including feeder integration, digitalisation and station upgrades, such as simplified tap-in/tap-out systems.
The Jakarta provincial administration provides a PSO subsidy of 21,000 rupiah per passenger for the Lebak Bulus-Bundaran HI route, reducing the fare from 35,000 rupiah to 14,000 rupiah for passengers.
The initially planned steeper budget cut for the mass transit system this year was part of a broader response to a significant decrease in regional transfers from the central government to regions, which fell from 26.14 trillion rupiah last year to 11.16 trillion rupiah this year, as Jakarta governor Pramono Anung explained in December.
Concerns over potential fare hikes are now subsiding. Alongside the MRT, Transjakarta’s PSO budget is also reportedly set for an increase in the course of the APBD revision.
According to provincial authorities, Transjakarta requires 4.8 trillion rupiah to maintain last year’s service levels but received only 3.75 trillion rupiah in the initial budget this year.
Nirwono Yoga, an expert staff member to the governor, confirmed that Pramono insisted that services remain unchanged, requiring additional funding.
“The matter has been settled. In June, it will be included in the revised regional budget. So the 1.1 trillion rupiah shortfall will be included there in the revised budget, which guarantees that services will remain the same as last year, until the end of this year,” Nirwono explained. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
