One of the parking meters sent up on Jalan Sabang in Central Jakarta
It’s not a secret that much, if not most, of the parking in Jakarta is controlled by preman (thugs) who have no actual authority and simply rule over their illegal parking spaces due to tradition and intimidation. Many of them work for organized parking preman syndicates run by bosses who make billions of rupiah a year off of illegal parking.
The capital had a few authorized parking attendants in the past, but after Governor Ahok pushed for the installation of electronic parking meters on a few streets in the city over the past year, we’ve seen just how much money the city has been losing out on all this time.
The head of the parking business unit at the Jakarta Department of Transportation, Sunardi Sinaga said that on Jalan Sabang, the first place the city installed electronic meters on, parking revenue has skyrocketed to Rp 12 million per day.
“In fact, it was previously just Rp 500,000,” Sunardi said at City Hall on Monday, as quoted by Kompas.
Similar jumps in revenue have been seen on the two other roads that the city has installed e-meters. On Jalan Falatehan in South Jakarta, the previously miniscule daily revenue of Rp 280,000 has jumped to 7 million. But the biggest increase can be seen on the street they were installed on in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.
“On Jalan Boulevard Kelapa Gading, before revenues were Rp 470,000 per day, now it’s Rp 40 million,” Sunardi said.
Using these numbers as evidence, Sunardi is proposing to increase the number of electronic parking terminals throughout the city, although he did not mention where. He said the city was currently conducting a tender to find more terminal operators.
From a financial standpoint, it is obvious that electronic parking meters are the way to go. In fact, Ahok estimates that the capital loses out on about Rp 1.9 trillion per year in revenue because of illegal parking. So why, in 2015, does Jakarta not have parking meters everywhere?
It’s because that’s how strong the parking preman and their bosses are, and because most Jakartans are okay with the status quo because they don’t realize how much harm it causes. But hopefully these hard revenue numbers will convince authorities besides Ahok that it’s high time to put an end to parking premanism. The capital can’t afford to wait any longer.
