City plans to tax vendors next year
City plans to tax vendors next year
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration is planning to legalize some 600,000
street vendors operating in Jakarta and collect tax in moves
estimated to add Rp 238 billion (US$23.8 million) to city coffers
next year.
City Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Agency informal sector
division head Sukma Jaya said on Tuesday that the administration
was preparing a bylaw to collect money from street vendors.
"We hope the bylaw could be approved soon and we can begin
collecting tax early next year," Sukma told reporters at City
Hall.
The planned bylaw would require street vendors pay a daily
levy of between Rp 800 and Rp 1,000 each.
"We would give them identification cards. We will acknowledge
their existence," Sukma said.
He admitted that certain officials in subdistricts --
including police and military officers -- illegally imposed
levies on vendors as a "protection fee".
City Council Commission B for economic affairs Deputy chairman
Dani Anwar said the council would study the planned bylaw
thoroughly before approving it.
"If the bylaw would be useful for the city and the vendors we
would approve it," Dani, of the Justice Party, told reporters,
adding that the council had yet to receive the proposed bylaw.
Meanwhile, City Public Order Office head Firman Hutajulu
reiterated on Tuesday that his office would not conduct raids
against street vendors during the fasting month of Ramadhan.
"They are still illegal. But we would not conduct raids
against them considering the atmosphere of this fasting month,"
Firman told reporters.
Thousands of street vendors are currently crowding around the
city's traditional markets and road sides, such as in Jatinegara
market in East Jakarta and Tanah Abang market in Central Jakarta.
Their number has increased significantly during the fasting month
as people buy new clothes, accessories, household stuffs, food
and other items in celebration of the Lebaran and Christmas
holidays.
In the past months, the administration conducted a series of
raids against the vendors. The policy drew strong protests from
the traders, several non-governmental organizations and even
Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea, who said
that 65 percent of the labor force were employed in the informal
sector.
For this year, the city budget allocated some Rp 36 billion to
conduct public order operations against street vendors, street
singers, street prostitutes and other people who were considered
to be disturbing public order.