Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said the government has no budget for subsidy on public transport.
"There is no subsidy on public transport but the format is in the form of grant, which is form of big support from the central government," Agus said commenting on a subsidy to be proposed by Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to cut the ticket price of the Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) to be built by the city administration.
The central government would not provide support in the form of subsidy for public transport, but in the other forms such as conversion of oil fuel into gas and in the use of renewable energy, he said here on Friday.
The policy of the Jakarta city administration to provide subsidy on public transport is good but the city administration itself has to provide the subsidy, he said.
"Otherwise other regional administrations may not get the message that public transport is the priority of regional administrations," he said.
Agus said he agreed with the plan of the Jakarta governor to control the ticket price of MRT to a reasonable level. "The MRT price feasibility is important. I agree with the step taken by Jokowi but we have not talked about subsidy," he said.
Earlier in a meeting with the leader of PT Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) at the City Hall, Jokowi expressed disagreement with the MRT ticket price and said he would ask the central government for subsidy.
MRT project, which is railway transport partly underground and partly elevated, has long been delayed. The Japanese government has agreed to finance the multi-billion US dollar project, but implementation has been over the price.
The new Jakarta governor has pledged to carry out the project as one of his ways of reducing notorious traffic jams in the city. (*/T007)
