Businesses want a say in permit fees
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city's new move to garner more revenue in permit fees from businesses in the tourist industry apparently startled businesspeople who claimed they were not involved in the decision.
In a draft bylaw on regional fees, which was scheduled to be approved on April 17, all managements of hotels, restaurants, and malls would be required to pay more new fees, including permit fees and yearly permit renewal fees.
Putu Ayu Aristya Dewi, marketing manager of Accor Group, which operates four and five-star hotels such as Novotel and Mercure, said on Monday that the group did not mind paying more fees as long as the officials discussed the plan with the hoteliers first.
"We don't mind paying fees but we hope that the bylaw won't be endorsed just like that without discussing it with us. We want discussion on the planned bylaw to be as transparent as possible," Putu told The Jakarta Post.
She said that she had not heard about the draft bylaw.
Putu added that as a business unit that operated in Jakarta, the Accor Group had to comply with whatever decision the administration would make.
The draft bylaw, which will replace Bylaw No. 3/1999 on regional fees, includes 29 new items, most of which are eyeing the lucrative tourist industry for extra revenue.
The existing bylaw does not require the payment of any fees for the establishment of tourism businesses, which also include tourist resorts, cottages, bars, travel agents and nightclubs, but the new one will impose fees ranging from Rp 125,000 (US$13.8) to Rp 30 million.
The establishment of a five-star hotel, for example, will cost the management Rp 20 million in fees and another 10 million for each subsequent year to extend the permit.
Handaka Santosa of Sogo department store and also the chairman of the Indonesian Retailers Association admitted that he was quite surprised that the city administration had never discussed the plan with the industry.
"How can they have a plan without even discussing it with the stakeholders of the tourist industry? I know that they can make any regulation they want but it would be better if any new fees were discussed with all the stakeholders," he told the Post.
He said that the tourist industry had already been burdened by many types of fees.
Danny Leo Lukito, owner of the Suite Seven cafe located in Kemang, South Jakarta, also criticized the planned bylaw saying that the government should launch efforts to attract more tourists to the country instead of taking more and more fees from the industry.
"It is already tough for us now as we have lost 50 percent of our expat customers since the bomb attacks rocked the country several years ago. The government should try hard to launch a campaign to bring back the tourists instead of imposing new fees that will surely make us suffer," Danny said.
He said that businesspeople would be glad to pay more fees if business had returned to normal again.