The Transportation Ministry said it would not prohibit online ojek (bike taxi) carrier providers from giving tariff reductions, canceling its earlier statement that it wanted to prevent declines from keeping away from “predatory pricing”.
On Thursday, Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said the ministry itself might no longer be the one that initiated such prohibition. “If a few stakeholders asked it, we would talk it,” he said.
Last month, the ministry set a tariff regulation for experience-hailing service companies. To be on trial for three months in 5 towns, the policy regulated minimal and maximum tariffs for the service.
After a sequence of rallies by ojek drivers demanding accelerated welfare tariffs, the ministry issued the regulation.
Weeks into the trial of the tariff law, the two largest provider companies, Go-Jek and Grab, have given customers discounts amid proceedings from clients regarding the growing price lists.
Grab Indonesia president Ridzki Kramadibrata said the trip-hailing corporation was open to dialogue with the authorities over this law.
“We will deliver our input for you to be greater on how [discounts and promotions] affect drivers’ and traders” earnings. In the give up, the choice lies with the government,” he stated.
He also said the Transportation Ministry might no longer move on with the plan to limit tariff discounts because they stated that they did not have any authority to regulate any such issue. Instead, the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) is the one who has such control.
“At first, we had been making plans on issuing the law. However, after a dialogue with the KPPU, we learned it’s’ far past our authority to accomplish that. Therefore, in the interim, we can now not adjust the discount policy,” he added.
Responding to the ministry’s try to ban discounts for journey-hailing carrier providers, Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) chairman Tulus Abadi stated values were no longer presupposed to be a problem as long as the discounted fee becomes nevertheless within the ministry’s minimum and maximum rate policy.
“The more critical factor for the authorities to modify is the protection difficulty, which is still disregarded,” Tulus said. (Mai/nor/dpa)
