The city administration is seeking to renegotiate a working contract with a compressed natural gas (CNG) supplier for TransJakarta buses, PT Petro Gas, as it could not afford current prices, an official says.

The governor's development assistant, Nurfakih Wirawan, said the revision was needed since the existing debt with the company was already "too high".

"The price for CNG fuel applied by (state-owned gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara) PGN is Rp 400 higher than prices set by (state oil and gas firm) Pertamina," he said at City Hall on Tuesday.

The administration was already Rp 15 billion (US$1.63 million) in debt with the company because it had agreed to fund the construction of gas pipelines to two CNG stations.

The two stations are in Rawa Buaya, West Jakarta, and on Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan, East Jakarta. TransJakarta operations of corridors 2 through 7 are dependent on four CNG stations, which serve 300 out of 396 buses.

The debt had worsened, the company claimed, as bus operators had failed to pay for up to Rp 10.6 billion worth of gas used over the past six months.

The operators, which are heavily dependent on the administration subsidies, paid fuel prices based on the administration's agreement with the PGN.

Operators, meanwhile, received tariffs from the busway management board, TransJakarta, based on how many kilometers their buses traveled.

Because of the administration's debt, Petro Gas had delayed its payments to state-owned gas producer PGN, Petro Gas president director Bagus Andika said.

"We are having financial difficulties due to the administration's delayed investment payments, and operators' delayed consumption payments," he said Monday.

Consequently, he said, Petro Gas had asked the administration and PGN to renegotiate their working contracts to resolve the problems.

Earlier, PGN had threatened to stop its supply to two CNG filling stations by the end of this month, due to the debts.

In response, Bagus had said, Petro Gas turned its back on PGN to teach the administration "a lesson".

PGN supplies CNG to Petro Gas, which pays the state-owned company using money it receives from bus suppliers running CNG-fueled buses.

Separately, the operational director of PT Jakarta Trans Metro (JTM) consortium, I Gusti Ngurah Oka, denied that his company had delayed CNG payments.

The city administration and the council agreed to allocate Rp 22 billion (US$2.4 million) to repair damaged roads across the city, a councillor said Monday.

The majority of the budget would go to repairing roads in East and South Jakarta, chairman of City Council Commission D on development affairs, Sayogo Hendrosubroto, said.

Last month, City Public Works Agency head Wisnu Subagya Yusuf proposed Rp 52 billion, but the council did not agree on the figure and cut it by more than half.

"We did, however, add another Rp 7 billion to the proposed Rp 6 billion to repair roads in Eastern Jakarta," Sayogo told The Jakarta Post Monday.

He said that South Jakarta and East Jakarta were most affected by the damage. The areas host the city's business centers and main lines for the transportation of goods.

Heavy rains and poor drainage had caused water to sit in large pools that, coupled with the city's heavy traffic, have corroded streets' surfaces. For several weeks, motorists have been forced to maneuver around and over bumps and sometimes into potholes on many of the city streets.

In South Jakarta, potholes and cracks can be seen, for example, on Jl. Gatot Subroto, Jl. M.T. Haryono and Jl. Casablanca.

The city's inner and outer ring roads in North and East Jakarta are also severely damaged and have caused massive traffic congestion leading to Tanjung Priok port.

The Indonesian Exporters Association said delivery costs had increased by around 10 to 15 percent due to unpredictable arrival times of exported goods at the port.

The damage may have serious repercussions to the Indonesian economy, as a government report claims, with up to 60 percent of the country's exports and imports going through Tanjung Priok.

Car and motorcycle drivers have also suffered with the dangerous road surfaces. City Police recorded some 538 road accidents in January, an increase from last year's 453 accidents (the average figure).