End of Games stickers welcomed

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Consumers Foundation has welcomed the municipality's decision to stop selling SEA Games stickers.

The chairperson of the foundation, Tini Hadad, said on Wednesday the municipality should be praised for listening to people's complaints.

"We knew the sticker sales would generate complaints," she said.

Tini said the policy regulating the collection of donations lacked transparency and consumers were annoyed by the collection method.

Many had complained to the foundation about the way the sticker charge was automatically added to mobile phone, telephone, water and electricity bills.

"If there are other donations to be collected from people, they should be carefully planned," she said.

The head of the City Planning Agency, Ahmaddin Ahmad, said yesterday the agency had stopped selling SEA Games stickers now that the gubernatorial decree authorizing sticker sales had expired.

"We complied with the governor's statement. If we're told to stop, we stop," Ahmaddin said.

The agency had been selling stickers to people applying for land use permits and site plans, charging between Rp 2,500 and Rp 50,000.

The gubernatorial decree authorizing sticker sales in the city expired Monday, with Governor Surjadi Soedirdja telling people the following day to refuse to pay for them from now on.

The sticker sales, which are being supervised by a consortium chaired by President Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, have raised Rp 1.3 billion (US$4.2 million) in Jakarta and Rp 2 billion throughout the country overall, far less than the targeted Rp 35 billion.

Other city agencies authorized by the gubernatorial decree to sell stickers were offices of land transport, development supervision, mining, public order, tourism and land.

Stickers were also sold by PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol, which is partially owned by the city, the city-branch office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Indonesian Retail Business Association.

A recent poll by the Indonesian Consumers Foundation found that 98 percent of mobile phone owners surveyed had objections to the sticker donations. (ste)