TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A member of the Jakarta legislative council (DPRD) of Commission B on Economic Affairs Gilbert Simanjuntak claimed that the Acting Governor of Jakarta Heru Budi Hartono was being irresponsible on the issue of Jakarta being taken down from the Formula E 2024 host calendar. Heru Budi reportedly delegated the scheduling issue of Formula E to PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro).

"Acting Governor [Heru Budi] could not avoid responsibility this way as if this issue is a matter of B2B (business-to-business)," he said when called on Wednesday, October 25, 2023.

Jakarta was previously set to host Formula E 2024 and was scratched from the match calendar. Jakpro requested that the match schedule be reorganized in anticipation of a second round of the 2024 General Elections.

A second round of the election will take place in June 2024 overlapping with the scheduled match in Jakarta.

Responding to this issue, Heru Budi, Jakarta's governor stated that he was unwilling to be involved in the business of electric car races. "Go ahead and discuss it B2B whether the race is postponed, if it's profitable, or looking for another appropriate date. I'll hand it over to Jakpro," he said on Monday.

Gilbert criticized this response by Heru Budi. According to the house member, the governor must have given clear and transparent instructions to Jakpro, since one of the financial sources of Formula E in Jakarta is public tax.

According to Gilbert, hosting Formula E in Jakarta will not economically benefit the provincial government of Jakarta, since the profit and spending for this project are not comparable.

"The losses will just become bigger, this this is a huge event, but the profit won't be as much," he said.

Meanwhile, House member from Commission A of Governmental Affairs William Aditya Sarana warned that hosting Formula E must never cause state losses. "Jakpro is responsible for this since this is a matter of B2B already," he concluded.

AISYAH AMIRA WAKANG

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