Raperda KTR Protested By Traders, DKI DPRD Admits 200 Meters Of Cigarette Prohibition Is Difficult To Applied

Cigarette illustration. (Basil MK-Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of the Regional Regulation Formation Agency (Bapemperda) of the DKI Jakarta DPRD, Jhonny Simanjuntak, responded to protests that came from MSME actors regarding the Draft Regional Regulation (Raperda) for Non-Smoking Areas (KTR) that would be ratified.

One of the things opposed by the merchant group was the prohibition of selling cigarettes at a radius of 200 meters from educational units and children's playgrounds. Jhonny admitted that the ban was indeed difficult to implement in the field.

"It will be very difficult to manage traders. What if their business first existed from school? So, that's why I also conveyed it at A Bapemperda," said Jhonny at the DKI Jakarta DPRD building, Friday, November 21.

Because it is deemed not implementative, Jhonny is also worried that the article on the prohibition of selling cigarettes at a 200 meter radius will also have the potential to cause clashes between traders and law enforcement officials.

"This regional regulation can be blunt. There is no need to regulate it like that. Who can enforce it? Satpol PP? Don't be a bold idea but be removed from reality," he said.

Previously, a number of MSME actors consisting of street vendors, grocery stalls, mobile coffee, and warteg expressed a firm rejection of the Raperda for Non-Smoking Areas (KTR) which is currently being finalized by the Bapemperda of the DKI Jakarta DPRD.

The business actors who are members of the MSME Coalition emphasized that these rules are not realistic to apply to small businesses and actually increase the burden on traders who are currently hit by the economic situation.

They also assessed that the DKI Jakarta DPRD did not understand the conditions of the field. They assessed that the discussion was carried out without considering the direct impact on MSMEs that depend on the sale of cigarette products.

"Small traders are currently struggling. Now, we are increasingly responding to the unacceptable, irrational KTR Ranperda. Don't just knock on the hammer," said Jakarta MSME Coalition spokesman Izzudin Zindan, Monday, November 17.

Meanwhile, the Board of Trustees of the Indonesian Market Traders Association (APPSI), Ngadiran, several new provisions in the KTR Raperda have the potential to hit traders' income, especially those that depend on selling cigarettes as one of the stable-valued commodities.

"The article prohibiting the sale of cigarettes within a radius of 200 meters from educational units and children's playgrounds, to the expansion of non-smoking areas in the people's market is tantamount to eliminating the livelihoods of market traders, which are increasingly eroded," said Ngadiran, Thursday, November 20.