Pertalite Prices Will Rise Allegedly Make Taxi Fares Become Expensive, Blue Bird's Managing Director Sigit Djokosoetono: Not Necessarily, It's Not Always An Increase In Fuel Prices That Causes Fares To Be Raised

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The government is planning to increase the price of Pertalite and Solar fuel oil (BBM). This step was taken to ease the burden of subsidies issued by the government, in line with the increase in world oil prices.

Then, if Pertalite is increased, will the taxi meter be expensive?

In response to this, Blue Bird's Managing Director Sigit Djokosoetono said that it is not necessarily the case that taxi metering will also be corrected to become expensive. This is because there are several other components that can be adjusted so that taxi fares do not go up.

"Not necessarily (the meter goes up). There are still some things that can be seen from the increase in tariffs," he told reporters, quoted on Thursday, April 21.

In addition, said Sigit, his party also made considerations related to people's purchasing power before increasing the taxi meter. According to him, the increase in fuel prices does not always have to be accompanied by meter adjustments.

"Because we will also see the absorption capacity of the community and what efficiency can be done. Not always an increase in fuel costs leads to an increase in tariffs," he said.

If Pertalite fuel increases, Sigit said, his party will first recalculate the production cost. This is because this type of fuel has a contribution of 20 percent of the total cost of Blue Bird's taxi fares.

"Only if Pertalite goes up, of course we will recalculate. Fuel costs are around 20 percent. Even though there is an impact, it doesn't have a 100 percent impact on all operational costs," he said.

In addition, Sigit said there are also many other costs that can be done efficiently.

"So we need to wait for the increase by what percentage. Then we can make adjustments," he said.

Sigit also explained that Bluebird's fleet consumes a minimum of fuel in the form of Pertalite, some of them also use Pertamax.

"Meanwhile, there are around 2.200 vehicles that use CNG (compressed natural gas) fuel. That's about 20 percent of the total existing fleet. If we have electricity, we have 35 fleets," said Sigit.