Traders protest rent increase

Traders protest rent increase

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

City-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya has raised the rental
fees of at least 39 of 153 traditional markets in the capital
since January, despite the traders' opposition.

Pasar Jaya president director Prabowo Soenirman said on Monday
that the hike rate was based on the transaction volume at
respective markets.

"The hike varies in accordance with the volume of
transactions. It's natural that the traders have opposed the
increase as it was the first time we raised the fees, which we
considered too low," Prabowo told The Jakarta Post over the
phone.

Prabowo said that Pasar Jaya had also shortened the rental
term to one year from two years, owing to its plan to renovate
some market buildings.

Over 1,000 traders staged a rally in front of the City Council
on Monday to protest the rise in rental fees.

Arriving in dozens of public buses, the protesters said they
would find it difficult to pay higher rent.

Some traders said they would have to pay between Rp 250,000
and Rp 850,000 in rent per year per square meter, as compared to
only between Rp 40,000 and Rp 50,000 per kiosk for two years.

"We are also afraid that banks would refuse to loan money to
small traders like us, with rental terms of one year. The banks
might worry that we could not pay the money we owe them within a
year," said Casmadi, a spokesman for the traders' association.

The traders also said Pasar Jaya had set a deadline of Feb. 28
for them to start paying, in installments, the increased rent up
until October. Should they fail to come up with the money, Pasar
Jaya would evict them.

Chairman of the traders' association, Rostal Gurning
complained that Pasar Jaya had ignored the City Council's
recommendation made on Dec. 24, 2004 not to raise rental fees.

In response to the traders' complaints, chairman of the
council's commission B for the economy Abdul Muthalib Shihab
promised to arrange a meeting between the traders and Pasar
Jaya's Prabowo in order to seek a solution to the problem.

Pasar Jaya said that it planned to partially or completely
renovate at least 86 markets since they had already exceeded the
allowed 20-year life span.

Pasar Jaya is also in the process of closing down seven
markets that have failed to attract high numbers of visitors and
vendors, and converting them into alternative facilities,
including apartments.

Promising to provide better facilities, the company has also
gradually increased charges for facilities used by traders by up
to 70 percent, from June 1 last year.

"The increase is part of the 300 percent increase planned for
over the next five years," Prabowo said, adding that the company
expected to contribute Rp 26 billion to city revenues.