Cigarette Sales Are Restricted, MSMEs And Market Traders Are Worried That Turnover Will Drop

Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian Cooperatives and Retail Association, Anang Zunaedi (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to mangaku market traders are worried that there will be a decrease in turnover due to restrictions on retail cigarette sales imposed by the government.

As is known, the government limits retail cigarette sales to zoning from education centers and child game locations. The provisions for limiting cigarette sales are contained in Government Regulation Number 28 of 2024. This rule is expected to reduce the level of child smokers.

Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian Cooperatives and Retail Association, Anang Zunaedi, revealed that more than 900 retail cooperatives and 2,050 local stores they rely on on turnover from cigarette sales.

Therefore, Anang said that MSME actors view the other impact of the regulation as a drop in the income of business actors.

"Many cooperative members they rely on selling cigarettes because the turnover contribution reaches 50 percent," he said in a Media Discussion in Jakarta, Tuesday, August 13.

Anang also admitted that he had written to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), the Ministry of Trade, to the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs regarding the rules for limiting retail cigarette sales.

He hopes that there will be a solution or policy plan. So far, he said, the rules regarding previously applicable cigarette sales limits have never been violated. Such as selling cigarettes to a certain age limit.

Anang also strongly rejected the zoning restrictions of at least 200 meters from the education center. This is because shops that are already standing near educational centers can no longer sell.

"It feels really good, what is clear (MSMEs) will lose turnover. MSME friends have a 50 percent contribution (from selling cigarettes). What about other shops too, automatically with their zoning they can't sell. We refuse. We will try how this PP can be canceled," he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary General of the Association of Indonesian Market Traders (APPSI), Herninta Defayanti, said that many market traders also sell cigarettes. In fact, he said that cigarette sales were the biggest contributor to market traders' income.

Therefore, Hernita rejected the policy of limiting cigarette sales imposed by the government at this time. Given the condition of traders who are complaining about the decline in revenue.

"This is a hard blow to market traders, especially our members where every day market traders complain that they go down by turnover to 30 percent. Cigarettes as one of the trade commodities, fast moving products that sell quickly and that is the support of turnover so that earlier it was conveyed, clusterization, (sales of cigarettes) retail of course this is also one of the things that needs to be reviewed," he said.

Hernita did not deny that the government's decision was related to health. However, he said the government also needed to consider the fate of 7.8 million market traders who were threatened with a decrease in turnover.

"Indeed, there are issues related to health, but the welfare of traders where there are 7.8 million market traders, even the latest data is 12 million market traders. This is not a small number for the government to accommodate," he explained.