City forms team to evaluate alcohol laws

City forms team to evaluate alcohol laws

JAKARTA (JP): The municipality has set up a team to work out
the city's response to the presidential decree and related
ministerial instructions on the supervision and control of
alcoholic beverages.

Deputy Governor of Administrative Affairs Idroes said
yesterday that the team, made up of officials from the Jakarta
Revenue Agency, had already started its evaluation.

"The team will determine if there is a need to change the
city's alcohol laws," Idroes told reporters at his office.

The ministerial instruction bans regional administrations from
imposing taxes and fees on liquor sales, and from taxing liquor
distributors.

The presidential decree and ministerial instruction were
issued after the Jakarta City Council passed a bill permitting
the city to tax alcohol distributors.

The bill received strong protests from Moslem groups who said
it was tantamount to legalizing alcohol, forbidden under Islamic
teachings. Under pressure, the bill was delayed, but it
eventually passed last September.

The bill was intended to replace a 1972 provincial decree,
which was considered weak in that it did not control alcohol
distribution and only imposed taxes on retailers.

The move to include distributors came from Councilor Muhammad
Banang of the United Development Party (PPP), who said that
distribution fees (permits costing Rp 10 million (US$4,273) a
year) would make people reluctant to distribute liquor. The bill
made a provision for permits costing Rp 10 million a year.

During a debate on the bill, Banang said that it would give
the Jakarta Public Order Office a stronger legal basis in
cracking down on illegal liquor distributors.

"With the bill, there would be restrictions on places that are
allowed to sell liquor," he said.

Banang said that the administration could not completely ban
liquor from the city, given that it was the national capital and
a service city.

The subsequent ministerial instruction, while banning certain
taxes, gives provincial and regional administrations more
autonomy in the management of alcohol sales and distribution.

The instruction stipulates that provincial administrations are
to issue decrees regulating prohibition, supervision and control
of liquor distribution, and regency administrations or
municipalities are to control places where alcohol can be sold.

The provincial and regency administrations' decrees basically
prohibit the distribution or sale of alcoholic beverages in
places other than hotels, bars or other designated places. The
instruction also rules that liquor cannot be sold at places close
to houses of worship, schools and hospitals.

Regional administrations can even ban sales and distribution
of alcohol if the majority of the regional population is against
it.

While the sale of alcohol in Indonesia, the world's largest
Islamic country, is legal, many Moslems believe that alcohol is
haram (religiously prohibited) and that regulating its
distribution is the same as condoning its consumption. (ste)