Gapasdap Asks Government to Immediately Adjust Ferry Fares

SURABAYA – The National Association of River, Lake and Ferry Transportation Entrepreneurs (Gapasdap) said the condition of river, lake and ferry transportation is… crossing in Indonesia is increasingly concerning. The situation is triggered by several causes that have been going on for quite a long time.

Head of Business and Tariff Division of DPP Gapasdap Rachmatika Ardiyanto said, there are several main triggering factors. Among others, the number of ships is too many in each crossing.

Where the permits granted do not see the balance between the number of existing ships and the number of docks that can accommodate the operation of the ship. The average ship only operates 30 percent to 40 percent each month.

“This will of course make it difficult for entrepreneurs to cover existing operational costs, especially fixed costs that still arise when ships are not operating,” explained Rachmatika in Surabaya, Tuesday (23/7/2024).

Shipping entrepreneurs, he said, complained because in the end, the applicable rates were increasingly insufficient to cover operational costs. If analyzed in terms of numerical calculations, that for every additional permit for one ship, an average increase in rates of 1.4 percent is needed.

Meanwhile, the proposal to add docks to accommodate existing ships submitted by Gapasdap, until now has not shown any signs of being realized by the government. The second factor is the increase in the dollar exchange rate against the rupiah as the cause of the fairly high cost increase.

Because more than 70 percent of the components of the cost of ferry transportation are greatly influenced by the dollar exchange rate. This condition, said Rachmatika, is actually the same as what happens with airplanes. Because of the increase in the dollar exchange rate, airlines ask for an increase in airplane fares. The same thing happens with ferry transportation.

“However, for ferry transportation, the current applicable tariff still uses calculations using the 2019 dollar exchange rate, which is IDR 13,951, and even that is still 31.8 percent less than the existing HPP calculation,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, the rupiah exchange rate against the dollar has reached Rp16,251, or up 16.5 percent per day. As a comparison, if we look at the fuel consumption of the Surabaya-Balikpapan plane, it requires approximately 5-10 tons of avtur. While ships with the same route require 50-75 tons of diesel.