Street traders pay Rp 3.2b in illegal levies a month

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

City officials and hoodlums collected at least Rp 4.4 billion (US$440,000) in illegal levies each month from 140,000 road side businesses employing 193,000 people, an official said on Tuesday.

Head of the city office of the Central Bureau of Statistics Masni Rani said the traders paid average illegal levies of Rp 23,000 a month.

"The levies are collected by individuals wearing the city administration's brown uniform," Masni told reporters after explaining the results of the first census on street traders to City Governor Sutiyoso and the city's five mayors.

Sutiyoso claimed that he had instructed the mayors to take strict measures against officers imposing illegal levies on street traders.

"I have expressed my anger to the mayors. I urged them to fire officers who were found guilty of collecting illegal levies," the governor said.

He rejected the idea that the administration should impose an official tax on street traders.

Sutiyoso said that the administration would not tax the traders until it could provide them with proper work venues.

The idea of legalizing street vendors was first proposed by an official at the city administration's economics bureau late last year. The vendors responded positively, but it did not win any support from the authorities.

Street traders in several areas here pay more in illegal levies than the average amount of Rp 23,000 a month. Some said that they had to pay an average of Rp 2,000 a day in sanitary and protection fees.

Jakarta Residents' Forum (Fakta) last year said that an investigation in Jatinegara market showed the illegal levies imposed on about 500 street vendors in the area amounted to Rp 3 million a day.

According to the survey, conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics in June last year, half of the street traders were Jakarta residents with city identification cards.

Around four percent of the traders had temporary identification cards (Kipem) while the remaining 46 percent had no Jakarta ID card.

Masni admitted that the current number of street traders could double since the city, and the country in general, was still suffering from the economic crisis.

"The informal sector has proven to be an alternative to accommodate the unemployment problem," she said.

A street vendor's turnover was between Rp 100,000 and Rp 300,000 a day, she added.

Although the informal sector is regarded as a solution to the unemployment problem, the city appears reluctant to help the sector develop. Because many vendors operate on sidewalks and roads, they often disrupt traffic and have became a target of city public order operations.

No less than the Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea himself has criticized the governor for evicting street traders and called on the city administration to offer them guidance instead.

Last year the city allocated Rp 40 billion for public order operations and has provided Rp 60 billion this year.

City public order officers were often involved in clashes with street traders during operations last year.

Locations known as "havens" for street traders include the Tanah Abang market in Central Jakarta, Pasar Minggu market in South Jakarta and along Jl. Jatinegara in East Jakarta.