Agency insists on rent increases in Pulogadung

Agency insists on rent increases in Pulogadung

JAKARTA (JP): The city agency which supervises the operation of small enterprises in the Pulogadung industrial zone insisted that rent increases for the low-cost apartments it manages were necessary.

R.O. Singgih, the head of the agency, told visiting city councillors and reporters yesterday that the increases were decided by a governor's decree and that he was not in a position to question or revise the rule.

Last week approximately 200 apartment residents filed a complaint with the city council protesting against the city administration's decision to double the daily rent.

The rent, effective Jan. 1, has been raised from Rp 1,000 to Rp 2,000 for a bachelor-style room and from Rp 1,200 to Rp 2,400 for a family room.

The residents, citing that the small enterprises were paying them meager wages even lower than the officially set minimum wages, said they could not afford the higher rents.

Singgih dismissed the claim and believes that they could all afford to pay the higher rents.

"They told me that they earn Rp 5,000 per day. I think they can afford the rent," he said, adding that since one room is normally shared by four workers, each one only needs to pay Rp 500 a day.

Raswan, one of the residents, separately told reporters that most of them are seasonal workers and that the small enterprises do not offer them steady jobs.

"It is hard because sometimes we don't have jobs for weeks which means we do not have any money to pay the rent," Raswan said.

The two-story apartment building located on Jl. Raya Penggilingan consists of 117 rooms. It was built to accommodate workers from the 520 small-scale enterprises in the Pulogadung complex. About 310 workers are currently registered as residents of the apartment building, and of these, 200 objected to the rent increases.

Singgih said rent increases were deemed necessary to help cover maintenance costs. The rent already includes water and electricity. "Even with the new rent the authority still has to subsidize the operational costs of the apartment," he added.

Raswan said the residents are only asking the authority to postpone the rent increases for three months.

Abdulgani H. Abdullah, the head of City Council's Commission B on economic affairs, defended the increases in rent as a way for the authority to cover the deficit.

Abdulgani said the authorities should reorganize the way the apartments are managed so that it fully supports the objective of promoting the small-scale industries.

He noted that some of the inhabitants of the small-scale industries complex have grown in size and that they should move out and make way for others who genuinely need the place.

Singgih confirmed that there are approximately 1,600 small- scale companies waiting to join the program in Pulogadung.

Abdulgani also emphasized that the complex has another role to play -- as a training ground for workers to equip them with basic industrial skills.

He added that the management should control the complex better because he noted that some of the buildings have been converted into stores. "If you don't restrict it, this place will soon change into a business center," he added.(yns)