Despite being outfitted with electronic payment capabilities, cash has been king at Bali’s Mandara toll road, where few people choose to pay electronically.
Not too shocking for us when the cost is just Rp 4,000 to get across.
Only two percent of people have paid their tolls electronically since the Bali Mandara toll first opened up in October 2013, reports Antara.
“The payment of toll users with electronic money is still minimal, just two percent of the approximately 42,000 traffic movements every day,” said Regional Manager Budi Susetyo on Tuesday, as quoted by Antara.
This year, the toll operator that runs about a 13 kilometer stretch, was planning on adding machines to read electronic money in collaboration with two state banks.
Susteyo says he expects people to use this sort of technology because it’s more efficient and will speed up the flow of traffic. This goes along with Bank Indonesia’s nationwide efforts to campaign for more non-cash transactions, including upping the use of debit and credit cards.
“We want to change the mindset since we’ve become a society in a country with an emerging market. We encourage spending using non-cash money,” Head of Bank Indonesia’s Bali division, Dewi Setyowati, said to Antara.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
