MSMEs Ask Raperda For Non-Smoking Areas In Jakarta To Be Evaluated, Worried About Extortion

The MSME Coalition visited the DKI DPRD to petition the rejection of the KTR Regional Regulation (Diah Ayu/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Jakarta MSME Coalition submitted a petition for rejection of the Draft Regional Regulation (Raperda) of Non-Smoking Areas (KTR) to the DKI Jakarta DPRD.

The petition was signed by a number of traders' communities, including the Warteg Merah Putih Community (WMP), Warung Tegal Cooperative (Kowarteg), the Jakarta Warteg and Street Lima Traders Association (Pandawakarta), the Warung Nusantara Community (Kowantara), the Mandiri Niaga Warung Cooperative (Kowartami), and the Remojong MSMEs.

Chairman of the Jakarta Korda Warteg Nusantara Community (Kowantara) Izzudin Zidan at the DKI Jakarta DPRD Building said this petition had been received by the Regional Regulation Formation Agency (Bapemperda) of the DKI Jakarta DPRD.

"We agree that we reject the KTR Raperda to be ratified first. Well, coincidentally we have brought an agreement letter. This is a joint commitment letter (petition)," Zidan told reporters, Thursday, November 20.

Not only to Bapemperda, but the rejection petition will also be submitted to the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government so that the Raperda KTR can be postponed.

"Our hope is that it will be postponed until later it is time for us to socialize again to business actors for us to review, we will socialize, we will let them know that there will be local regulations governing this KTR," said Zidan.

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the Indonesian Badminton Association (Kowartami), Salasatun Syamsiyah, said that the presence of the KTR Regional Regulation is feared to be an opportunity for illegal levies (extortion) for certain individuals.

"Because we already have a difficult income like this, with the Raperda like this, we are worried that there will be extortion," said Syamsiyah.

Syamsiyah admitted that he was worried that warteg business actors would be subject to other costs outside the provisions so that their businesses would not be subject to sanctions from the enforcement of the KTR regional regulation.

Thus, 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, which are currently hit by the economic situation.

"Re-evaluated for restaurants, warteg, please. Our voices from these wartegs are heard properly," he said.