REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Congestion does not only affect time problems. The impact can be in many directions. One of them is on the economic side. The Ministry of Transportation noted especially in DKI Jakarta alone, the economic losses due to congestion hit IDR 65 trillion per year.

“This is the source of the RPJM (Medium-Term Development Plan) 2020-2024,” said the Road Transport Director of the Ministry of Land Transportation, Ernita Titis Dewi, during a discussion at her office, in Jakarta, Tuesday (14/1/2025).

He continued, in Semarang, Surabaya, Bandung, Medan, and Makassar, the loss due to congestion is around IDR 12 trillion per year. That is why various schemes of regulating highway traffic, are always undergoing refinement. At the same time, the government also continues to push for increased public transport users.

Ernita said public transport services in urban areas are still very low. The use of private vehicles predominates. The government is responding to that.

This includes one of the backgrounds to the emergence of management and development of road-based urban mass public transport with the Buy the Service (BTS) scheme. Government intervention is necessary to avoid the failure of the market for urban transport services.

“The government and the local government are the agencies responsible for organizing urban public transport according to their area of authority. So one of the forms of responsibility is to subsidize urban transport services,” Ernita said, in a discussion at the Ministry of Economic Affairs Office, Jakarta, Tuesday (14/1/2025).

The rules regarding this are set out in Article 5 Paragraph (1) of Law (Law) Number 22 of 2009. It reads the state is in charge of highway freight traffic bags, and its construction is implemented by the government.

In this case, the road, its agency in the Ministry of Transport. Then public transport is organized in an effort to meet the needs of temporary, safe, comfortable, and affordable transportation.

“Furthermore, the government or local government must ensure the availability of public transport. The rules on this matter are enshrined in Law No. 22/2009, article 139,” Ernita said.

Later in the derivative rules are regulated in Ministerial Regulation No.9 of 2020. It concerns urban public passenger National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024; Provision of urban mass public transit subsidies. Then Renstra will be Director General of Hubdat 2020-2024. This is about a road-based mass transit development program with a service purchase scheme.

“Likewise, the later for 2025 to 2029 will certainly follow the cities that have been designated later in the RPJM and Renstra of the Ministry of Transportation. And for RPGM and Renstra 2025-2029 it is later now at the drafting stage,” Ernita said.

Urban public transit passenger subsidies, he continued, were provided with the purpose of stimulus. Kemenhub as a building agency provides stimulus for the development of urban public transport. Second, increasing interest in the use of public transport. The third is the ease of mobility of people in urban areas.

“If the Ministry of Transport does not provide subsidies that were the goal earlier, it will cost more to ride public vehicles. Well, for that, there were considerations for stimulus, increasing user interest, if the tariff is low, of course, the interest in use will be higher,” Ernita said.

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