End of Games stickers welcomed
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)