Rental Rates For Privately Run Bazaar Sites To Be Aligned Next Year – Exco

ISKANDAR PUTERI, Feb 19 (Bernama) -- The Johor state government will align rental rates for Ramadan bazaar sites managed by the private sector beginning next year.

Johor Housing and Local Government Committee chairman (Exco) Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor said the move follows findings that certain locations are charging excessively high rental rates to traders.

He said that for now, the state government has aligned rental rates across all 16 local authorities (PBTs) in Johor, with rents charged to traders who lease directly from PBTs set at RM500 and below.

“For the private sector, we acknowledge that at present there is no control, but insya-Allah, next year we will review and align this matter. There are certain locations charging rents of up to RM5,000, but field checks found that this practice has been going on for years.

“There are Ramadan bazaars that record revenue of up to RM50,000 to RM60,000 throughout Ramadan. This means that even if traders pay RM5,000 in rent for the 30-day period, their gross income can reach up to RM67,000, depending on the type of business.

“Because of this, most traders are willing and do not lodge complaints. At the private sector level, based on feedback received so far, there has been no dissatisfaction as the income earned is far higher,” he said at a press conference after visiting the Nusa Perintis Ramadan Bazaar site here today.

Elaborating further, Mohd Jafni said the alignment of rental rates would be flexible and subject to location as well as facilities provided by organisers.

He added that the alignment would also cap organisers’ profits at 30 per cent of the rental rate.

“If we want to fully control private sector rental rates below RM500, this would be quite challenging as there are various categories of locations, including high-traffic areas, as well as differing facilities provided by organisers," he said..

He also informed that a total of 224 Ramadan bazaar locations this year with 13,576 rental lots have been approved, an increase of 819 lots compared with last year.

-- BERNAMA