PT MRT Jakarta Aims 51 Percent Of PT KCI Shares To Make BUMD Controllers Of BUMN, Observers: Ironic!

Illustration / KRL passengers (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Executive Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies (Instran) Deddy Herlambang said that it is ironic if Regional Owned Enterprises (BUMD) become the majority shareholder of corporations labeled State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN)

His statement was made following the plan to take over 51 percent of PT KCI's shares from PT KAI by PT MRT Jakarta (MRTJ), which is a BUMD owned by the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government.

"In terms of business, it is permissible for KCI and MRTJ to be combined as a corporation, but ironically, BUMD has a larger share than BUMN," he said to VOI in a written statement, Friday, January 8.

According to Deddy, ideally BUMN should get majority shares rather than BUMD shares because state-owned businesses are more strategic in national development.

"It is very paradoxical if KAI wants to develop its business with PT MRTJ, which will operate KRL on the Solo-Yogyakarta route or other cities which will have to be approved by MRT first, as the largest shareholder," he said.

Deddy added, the President's mandate to integrate between these modes including land and train (KRL / MRT / LRT) is the right indicator of the success of shifting to public transport. However, too many technical executions neglect other regulatory functions.

"Actually, for the integration of the Jabodetabek area agglomeration we already have the BPTJ (Jabodetabek Transportation Management Agency)," he said.

According to him, BPTJ was formed based on the law of Presidential Regulation Number 103 of 2015 which was enacted on 18 September 2015. For this reason, it is necessary to optimize the function of the transportation authority in this region.

"Why is this BPTJ main function not being optimized? So there is a regulatory function in addition to PT MITJ which functions as an operator. If it is only MITJ, it will have the potential to make its own rules and implement it independently, "said Deddy.

For information, BPTJ already has an integrated transportation arrangement master plan in Jabodetabek, with the name RITJ (Jabodetabek Transportation Master Plan).

RITJ is stipulated through Presidential Regulation Number 55 of 2018 concerning the Transportation Master Plan for Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi for 2018-2029.

Even so, the boss of Instran thinks that RITJ is not used as a creative basis in developing the concept of intermodal connectivity. This can be seen from the attitude of policy makers who prefer to appoint direct operators for integration between modes or between regions.

"For a long time, the problem of integration of public transport has always been constrained by sectoral egos and weak regulations. "If this issue takes too long to execute, consumers will be disadvantaged and the target mode of share for 60 percent of public transport will be increasingly difficult to achieve in 2029," he said.