Benefits of the Sea Toll
Source: Kompas.com
Date: 7 June 2020
The benefits of sea tolls are huge, especially in pressing the price gap between the Western and Eastern regions of Indonesia. Do you know what sea toll is and what are the benefits of sea toll?
What is a sea toll?
Citing Realizing World Maritime Axis (2015) by Andi Iqbal Burhanuddin, the concept of a sea toll is not to build a toll road on the sea.
Sea toll is the provision of a logistics distribution system using large vessels connecting ports on the main routes. The main sea toll routes are Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Jakarta, Surabaya, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, and Papua.
Whereas the distribution to other islands uses smaller vessels compared to the mainline fleet.
If the ships are sailing regularly on the main routes, the price of necessities in Papua will not be in much different than it is in Java.
Whereas in the land sector, the sea toll concept will be integrated with the railroad network in Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua.
Benefits of sea tolls
Citing Maritime and Investment, the construction of sea tolls aims to realize connectivity and to reduce the price gap between the Western and Eastern regions of Indonesia due to the lack of certainty of the availability of goods.
The main benefit of the sea toll is the price reduction in disadvantaged areas, remote areas, outermost areas, and border areas. Because so far there has been a disparity (gap) in prices of some staple goods.
With regular vessels serving as sea toll routes, transportation costs have dropped for commodities. During 2018, prices of goods will also drop in some locations by 20-30 percent compared to before the sea toll.
The decline in commodity prices has only occurred in the region around the port. But the price of goods in rural areas such as mountains is still high.
In conclusion, the benefits of the sea toll are:
- Realizing the first Nawacita (the Nine Main Agenda), namely strengthening the identity of the Indonesian nation as the largest maritime nation in the world;
- Securing the availability of commodities or staple goods and important goods in all regions of Indonesia;
- Reducing price fluctuations between times and reducing price disparities and facilitating the marketing of regional superior products;
- Increasing investment in the regions, specifically to increase added value as a chargeback;
- Improving the welfare of all levels of Indonesian society;
- Increasing infrastructure development in all regions of Indonesia;
- Reducing the unemployment rate in Indonesia.
Maritime and maritime economic development
Citing BPHN, according to the Republic of Indonesia Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 3 of 2015 about the amendments to Perpres No. 43 of 2014 about the 2015 government work plan, sea toll construction is included in maritime and marine economic development.
Maritime and maritime economic development has been a leading sector of the Indonesian government since 2015. Maritime development is very important considering that Indonesia is an archipelago country rich in marine products.
Maritime and maritime economic development is focused on connecting the islands through the national traffic network and sea tolls and increasing the commodity of marine products.
