Residents complain of illegal levies

Residents complain of illegal levies

TANGERANG: Residents of Grendeng subdistrict in Tangerang
complained about the illegal levies imposed by local officials
for the application process of documents such as ID cards, family
cards and birth certificates.

One of the residents, Sandra, said on Tuesday that an official
at the subdistrict office asked her for Rp 20,000 to speed up the
processing of an ID card application, which would then be ready
within a day.

"The official told me that if I was not willing to give him
the money, I would have to wait for at least a week or two," she
said.

Meanwhile, Hengky S., head of community unit 8 in the
subdistrict, said that illegal levies usually ranged from Rp
15,000 to Rp 30,000.

Starting January 2001, mayor M. Thamrin ordered all
subdistrict offices in the municipality to no longer impose any
fees on residents who applied for documents at subdistrict
offices.

The subdistrict chief, Muchtar, denied that his officials
collected illegal levies from residents, saying that the
accusation was made by people who had a personal grudge against
him. --JP