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.