General Costs And Resurgence Administration, East Belitung PDAM Tariffs Rose To IDR 3,269/Meter Kubik

The coordination meeting on the increase in PDAM customer water base rates in East Belitung, Wednesday (28/9) (ANTARA/HO-Diskominfo)

BANGKA - The Government of East Belitung Regency, Bangka Belitung Islands Province, has raised the water base tariff for customers of the Regional Drinking Water Company (PDAM) to compensate for fairly high operational costs. "We will increase the customer's water base tariff from Rp. 2,500 per cubic meter to Rp. 3,269 per cubic meter," said the Regional Secretary of the East Belitung Regency Government, Ikhwan Fahrizi in Manggar, Antara, Wednesday, September 28. This year, the PDAM expenditure under BUMD is quite high, especially from general and administrative costs which are dominated by employee burdens. "To balance it, we are forced to increase the customer's water base tariff, which is indeed our lowest water tariff compared to other regions," he said. Director of PDAM East Pelangi, Zubair said that currently the basic tariff for drinking water is still IDR 2,500 per cubic meter. "Our water level is the lowest, when compared to the PDAM of Belitung Regency they are already Rp. 3,500 per cubic meter and even they will increase the tariff to almost Rp. 5,000," he said. His party has applied for a tariff increase to Rp3,629 per cubic meter of the Board of Commissioners to obtain the regent's approval. "The Regent's Decree or Perbup plan will be issued in November 2022. So the new rate will start in January 2023,” Zubair said. Zubair said the increase in PDAM rates was more to offset the increase in prices, both basic electricity tariffs, production costs and employee salaries. As of August 2022, the number of local PDAM subscribers reached 3,606 subscribers and showed an improvement graph. "Although there has been an increase in customers, PDAM receipts have decreased due to billing problems," he said.