Members Of The House Of Representatives Regarding Plans To Increase KRL Tariffs: Discriminatory, Rich People Will Use Private Vehicles

Illustration of passenger electric rail (KRL) Commuter Line. (ANTARA-Aprillio Akbar)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission V DPR, Suryadi Jaya Purnama criticized the discourse on increasing Commuter Line rates for people who are considered rich. According to him, this policy actually discriminates between rich people and poor people. "I consider there to be discrimination, in fact (the difference in tariffs, ed) will make rich people return to using private vehicles and even have the potential to cause traffic jams," Suryadi said in his statement, Friday, December 30.

The PKS legislator said that KRL is a mode of public transportation built with people's taxes. The benefits are to reduce congestion because people switch from private vehicles to public transportation such as KRL. Therefore, Suryadi emphasized that public transportation is for all people. There is no separation for users by selecting between 'the rich' and the 'poor'.

"Therefore, we reject this discriminatory policy," he explained. Suryadi explained that from the start his party had rejected the tariff increase plan because technically the Commuter Line KRL was considered still overloaded during peak hours. Meanwhile, from a financial perspective, the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) has also poured more than IDR 3.2 trillion to subsidize train users in 2022. "And in 2023, we ask that subsidies for mass transportation such as KRL should be enlarged so that more people leave private vehicles and move to mass transportation," said Suryadi.

Previously, the Ministry of Transportation ensured that the Commuter Line KRL would not experience an increase in tariffs until 2023. However, there will be an appropriate subsidy implementation in the middle of next year.

"God willing, until 2023 it will not increase. But, later use a card. So those who have a proposal are nothing, yes, (the financial capacity is high) must pay other (no subsidies). So until 2023 we plan not to go up," said Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi in a press conference at the end of the year of the Ministry of Transportation 'Achievements for 2022 Performance and Work Plans for the Ministry of Transportation 2023' in Jakarta, Tuesday, December 27.

The Ministry of Transportation is known to be issuing a new card to differentiate the profiles of passengers'si rich' and'si poor'. With the issuance of this card, passengers can afford or who are considered rich, do not enjoy subsidies because the original KRL tariff is currently above Rp. 10,000. Meanwhile, the normal KRL tariff is around Rp. 3,000.