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)