The Government Subsidizes KAI IDR 3.4 Trillion, Mostly Enjoyed By Jabodetabek KRL Passengers

KRL Commuterline (Didi Kurniawan/VOI)

JAKARTA - PT. Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) received a subsidy allocation of IDR 3.4 trillion from the government in order to keep the selling price of economy class tickets affordable throughout 2021.

President Director of PT. KAI, Didiek Hartantyo, said that the support of the financial sector was contained in the signing of the Public Service Obligation (PSO) Service Obligation Assignment Contract for Economy Class Train Passenger for the 2021 Fiscal Year.

"This assignment is at the same time a real effort by the state in helping to facilitate services for the community," he said, Monday, February 15.

Didiek added that this subsidy is active for economy class travel from January 1 to December 31. He detailed that the optimization of funds from the government will be distributed to several segments, namely long-distance economy class with an estimated 1.37 million passengers, medium distance 3.27 million passengers, and Eid al-Fitr train 26,445 passengers.

Furthermore, the short-distance economy train is 21.22 million passengers, the diesel rail line is 3.49 million passengers, the Jabodetabek electric train (KRL) 166.36 million passengers, and the Jogja-Solo KRL 2.22 passengers.

Especially starting this year, the boss of KAI explained that the subsidy payment scheme from the government will be received monthly. This is different from the previous year, which was paid every three months.

"We hope that the monthly payments can provide support to KAI's financial performance," he said.

To note, PT. KAI enjoys support from the state's operational costs thanks to the rules stated in Law No. 23/2007 concerning Railways. The regulation itself mandates the government to provide a tariff difference in the form of subsidies as part of the assignment mechanism to BUMN.