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.