Tanah Abang traders ask for free rent until 2010
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Occupants of destroyed kiosks in the Tanah Abang textile market in Central Jakarta, whose rents are due next year, are asking market officials to delay their rents until 2010 at the earliest.
"I need more time to gather the money to pay the rental fee for 20 years, which could reach up to Rp 170 million (US$19,100) per square meter," Nurfaizi, whose eight-square-meter kiosk located in Block A of the market was destroyed in the recent fire, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Ismed Roza, head of the business division of the Tanah Abang Market Traders Cooperative (Koppas) and who also has a kiosk in the market, said it would take at least two years to complete repairs on the burned market.
"Let's say the repair work is completed in 2005. That means we still have the right to use the kiosks for another year.
"And the cooperative will negotiate with the market operator over the possibility of letting the current occupants use the new kiosks rent-free until 2010," he told the Post.
Fire burned in the market for four days last week, badly damaging three of the six blocks in the four-story building. About 2,000 vendors in Block A and a total of 500 others from Block C and Block E lost all of their merchandise in the fire.
The 20-year rental agreements for the majority of the kiosks in Block A, which opened in 1975, expire next year. The rental agreements for the newer kiosks on the block's upper floors, which were granted in 1995, are valid until 2015.
Besides the issue of rent, the occupants are facing other difficulties regarding their right to reoccupy their kiosks once the building is repaired. Some vendors, concerned about their future, have sold their rental rights to raise capital.
In a meeting with the vendors on Thursday after a visit by former state minister for cooperatives and current member of the Indonesian Cooperatives Council's advisory board, Adi Sasono, Koppas chairman Nuzli Arismal advised the kiosk owners to retain their rental rights to avoid being squeezed out by middlemen.
Earlier, Adi Sasono promised the president of city-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya, Syahril Tanjung, that the cooperatives council would provide facilities for small-scale traders.
Syahril assured the kiosk owners they would be allowed to reoccupy their kiosks in the repaired building without having to pay any additional fees.
Many of the kiosk owners whose businesses were not damaged in the fire have already reopened for business, but are forced to close their shops early because there is still no electricity in the building.
Sanitation workers at the market are in the process of clearing away debris. When that is finished, 2,900 makeshift kiosks on floors five through seven in Block F's parking lot will be opened.
Nuzli said Koppas expected to receive Rp 300 billion from the offices of the State Minister for Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises and the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, as well as the Ministry of Finance to help the cooperative members reopen their businesses.
"The money will be used by 747 Koppas members to reopen their businesses and to pay their future rental fees," he said, adding that Koppas members accounted for less than 10 percent of the market's total occupants.