City to impose zone-based levies on vendors
City to impose zone-based levies on vendors
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta administration will impose zone-based fees on the
over 141,000 street vendors operating, and critics say causing
traffic, in the city.
"This way we can regulate them and provide them with better
assistance," City Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises
Agency head Sukri Bey told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
The new policy, which will begin in September, will create a
zoning system in which vendors in higher mobility areas will have
to pay higher fees.
The fees will range from Rp 3,000 (some 30 US cents) to Rp
10,000 per day, per standard-sized two-meter-by-two-meter stall.
Higher fees will be charged for larger stalls.
Among the areas that will be zoned as strategic locations are
Senen and Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta, and Jatinegara in East
Jakarta.
The administration hopes this new policy will replace the
unofficial policy of unauthorized parties and corrupt officials
extorting money from vendors.
The administration officially stopped imposing fees on street
vendors in 1997 when the economic crisis struck, putting lots of
people out of work and forcing them into the informal sectors,
including working as street vendors.
As the number of vendors grew, according to Sukri, the city
administration tried to curb the growth by reimposing fees,
especially in high-traffic areas.
The agency also said it would provide bank guarantees for
street vendors who wanted to obtain bank loans.
"Hopefully, the street vendors will be able to expand their
micro-businesses into either small or medium businesses," Sukri
said, adding that some state banks and city Bank DKI had agreed
to channel credits to vendors that received guarantees from the
administration.
Last year, banks channeled a total of Rp 220 trillion in
credits to businesses in the capital, of which only Rp 20
trillion, or 10 percent, went to small and medium enterprises
(SMEs). Experts agree that SMEs should receive more loans,
particularly considering that they account for 60 percent of
businesses operating in the capital.
SMEs provide jobs for more than four million people in the
city, with an average salary of Rp 700,000 per month.
The chairman of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesia Street
Vendors Association (APKLI), Muhamad Muhdi, demanded the
administration pass a regulation giving vendors a legal basis for
their operations.
"The allocation of space for street vendors is not clearly
covered in any bylaw or gubernatorial decree," Muhdi said.
Muhdi said this weak legal basis made vendors vulnerable to
eviction and raids by the City Public Order Agency in the name of
city beautification, sanitation and transportation projects.
The APKLI estimates that with an average of 15 residents being
served by each street vendor, more than 2.1 million Jakartans,
mostly low-paid workers, enjoy the services provided by street
vendors.
Jakarta has a total population of over 10 million.