Surabaya City Government Requires Photo And Video Collection At Paid Youth Center For Commercial

PHOTOS OF ILLUSTRATION/visitors when taking selfies at the Surabaya Youth Center. (DOK Public Relations of the Surabaya City Government)

SURABAYA - The Surabaya City Government (Pemkot) requires taking photos and videos at the Surabaya Youth Center for a fee of IDR 500 thousand per three hours. This policy applies to commercial interests such as pre-wedding, advertising and others.

"We make sure that those who pay are only for commercial purposes, if it's just for personal use, it's free, because it's a public place as well. So, what needs to be underlined is once again only for commercial ones," said Head of the Surabaya City Culture, Youth and Sports and Tourism Office (Disbudporapar), Hidayat Syah, in Surabaya, Wednesday, January 17.

Hidayat emphasized that the implementation of the retribution is regulated in Regional Regulation (Perda) number 7 of 2023 concerning Regional Taxes and Levy, which contains the use of the Youth Hall area for taking photos or videos subject to IDR 500,000 per three hours.

According to him, commercial interests include product photos, advertising photos, pre-weding photos by vendors, taking videos for films and video clips as well as other commercial interests. Now, for them, they are subject to a retribution of Rp. 500 thousand per three hours according to the stipulated regional regulation.

"The regional regulation is being discussed at the end of 2023, and is valid from January 1, 2024, and until now we are still socializing it, including the insertion of the announcement paper at the Youth Hall, it is actually for the socialization of this regional regulation," he said.

Although the goal was good for the socialization of the Regional Regulation, it turned out that the sticking of the announcement paper caused a polemic, so his party immediately revoked the announcement paper.

"For the sake of mutual comfort, we have withdrawn the paper. But if the Youth Hall will be used for commercial purposes, then the regional regulation will apply," he said.

Meanwhile, non-commercial photos or videos for visitors or for private collections are not enforced by the regulation. He also emphasized that visitors do not need to hesitate to take pictures or take videos from their gadgets if not for commercial purposes.

"Photos, Selfie and friends or family do not apply this retribution," he said.

"The Youth Party is one of the tourist icons in Surabaya. Now, many residents and tourists have visited the place, so this is a special attraction for tourists who will visit Surabaya," he concluded.