City collects Rp 8.3b in shopping center fines

City collects Rp 8.3b in shopping center fines

JAKARTA (JP): Shopping center owners have provided a total of
Rp 8.3 billion (US$3.6 million) in compensation for their failure
to give sites in their buildings to small traders since 1983.

The deputy chairman of the city council's commission B, for
economic affairs, Nitra Arsyad, said yesterday that gubernatorial
decree No. 240/1983 stipulates that shopping center owners must
provide plots for small traders.

According to another gubernatorial decree, No. 1469/1983, the
compensation is Rp 135,000 per square meter of the space a
shopping center owner should provide.

"But most of them have failed to be abide by the decree, and
only a few have paid the compensation," Nitra, who is of the
Golkar ruling group, said. He said he did not have accurate
records on the number of shopping centers operating in the
capital.

He just said that according to the decree 20 percent of the
total space of a shopping center must be reserved for small
traders.

"The city administration has spent Rp 3.9 billion on eight new
markets for roadside vendors or small-scale traders," he said.
The markets are located in Jl. Nusa, East Jakarta, Meruya Ilir
and Kalideres in West Jakarta, Tipar Cakung and Lorong in North
Jakarta, Rawa Sawah and Palmerah in Central Jakarta and Jl. H.
Cokong, South Jakarta.

As many as 100,000 street vendors are now occupying the
markets, while there are around 100,000 more vendors who have yet
to be resettled," Nitra said.

He added that the amount of compensation is now Rp 300,000 per
square meter of space to be made available. "I think this is
fair. The old rate is too low now," he said.

Nitra said the building owners will benefit from the traders
because they will pay the rent of the space they occupy.

The councilor also said that commission B supports a plan to
make gubernatorial decree no. 240 a provincial decree.

"The plan is to make the policy stronger than just a
gubernatorial decree to make it legally binding. Those violating
a provincial decree will be prosecuted," he said.

Nitra said with the provincial decree the city administration
will be able to force shopping centers owners to help small-scale
traders.

The city administration has been trying to eliminate small
scale traders, especially street vendors, from the city streets
for years, but the effort is hampered by limited available space.
(yns)