Street vendors' welfare

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council has criticized the city administration for failing to improve the welfare of street vendors operating in the city.

Lukman F. Mokoginta, chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction of the council, said over the weekend that the welfare of street vendors will be considered improved when many of them manage to operate their own kiosks or legally hire space at new markets in the capital.

Lukman said the city administration should not consider the increase in total fees collected from sidewalk vendors a success. The municipal government reported recently that the fees collected from the vendors during the 1994/1995 fiscal year reached Rp 1.6 billion (US$736,468), far exceeding the target of Rp 1.4 billion.

"Don't see this figure as a success, because it shows that the city administration's efforts to reduce the number of street vendors has completely failed," Lukman said.

The higher amount of fee collection indicates that the number of vendors is growing, not falling as expected, he said. (32)