Officials to be questioned over fishy levy collection

Officials to be questioned over fishy levy collection

TANGERANG (JP): The regency office will soon question
officials of a local fishery agency in connection with an 8
percent levy it collected from fishermen selling fish at Surya
Bahari village's fish auction market in Pakuhaji district.

The Tangerang Regency Office spokesman, Slamet Putranto, said
on Saturday that his office would also soon order the agency to
immediately hand over the management of the market to a
cooperative unit run by the fishermen.

"The management of the fish auction market at Surya Bahari has
been officially provided to the fishermen's Mina Samudra
cooperative unit as stipulated in a decree issued by the regent
based on a decree issued by the West Java governor and another
one signed by three related ministers," Slamet said.

"The fishery agency does not have the authority to stop the
fishermen's cooperative unit managing the market," he added.

Earlier in the day, representatives of some 1,000 local
fishermen in the area claimed they had been force to pay an 8
percent levy to "hoodlums" for every transaction they made at the
market.

According to fisherman Burhanuddin, 42, the auction market
serves at least 1,000 boats per day with a daily turnover of
between two and three million tons of fish.

"In the beginning, we hoped our cooperative unit would help us
eliminate this kind of levy. But what happened is that we still
can do nothing because the market is still run by the fishery
agency," he said.

Nasirudin, manager of the cooperative unit, said the business
unit had obtained decrees from the West Java governor and the
Tangerang regent 10 months ago which allows them to take over the
management of the market.

"Sadly to say, the agency still refuses to give it to us," he
said.

Spokesman Slamet promised his office would soon help solve the
case.

"We'll probe the case and question the agency over its refusal
to hand over the market's management to the fishermen's
cooperative unit," he said.

Fishermen were told by the hoodlums that the levy was for the
provincial government (1.5 percent), the regency's administration
office (1.5 percent), operational costs (2 percent), sea accident
insurance (2 percent) and saving schemes (1 percent), among other
things.

Slamet insisted he had no idea of what his office had done
with its supposed share of the levy.

"We'll question the agency officials on the whereabouts of the
money collected from the levy and where all the money has gone,"
he said. (41/bsr)