DBKL LODGES POLICE REPORT OVER RAMADAN BAZAAR LICENSE MANIPULATION

KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 (Bernama) -- Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has filed a police report against a party detected of manipulating Ramadan Bazaar licenses for this year.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Federal Territories) Dr Zaliha Mustafa said it was disappointing that there were still attempts to sell lots detected via WhatsApp.

"I have the individual's phone number and will not hesitate to take stricter action," she said during a question and answer session at Dewan Negara today.

She said this in response to a question by Senator Datuk Wira Dr Mohd Hatta Md Ramli who wanted to know how the ministry could guarantee that Ramadan Bazaar hawker licenses around the Federal Territories would no longer be manipulated by irresponsible parties as before.

Dr Zaliha explained that DBKL, which has taken over the full organisation of 40 Ramadan Bazaar locations and two Aidilfitri Bazaar locations, is confident that there will be no manipulation or sale of lots as the management and offering is done directly online to applicants and traders.

"For the lots that are still vacant, applications have been reopened on a first come first serve basis to give traders the opportunity to get a bazaar lot," she said.

Dr Zaliha said that Putrajaya Corporation, which manages four sites, and the Labuan Corporation, which opened two Ramadan Bazaar sites, also gave an assurance that no hawker licenses to traders would be manipulated and that enforcement by corporation officers would be carried out periodically throughout Ramadan this year.

Responding to Mohd Hatta's additional question on the progress so far in the two days of the Ramadan Bazaar implementation following the site rental being reduced to RM500, Dr Zaliha said that there were traders who reported that the first day's business results were able to return their capital.

"Although we still hear complaints and comments on social media saying that the (selling) price is still the same as the previous year, this low rental price should reduce the Alibaba phenomenon and it also allows traders to sell at competitive prices, but other factors such as the cost of raw materials and profit margins are still the main determinants of the selling price," she said.

Responding to a supplementary question from Senator Manolan Mohamad on whether the Ramadan Bazaar has the potential to be a tourism product in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2026 and how the government will ensure that it continues to offer traditional food and cakes, Dr Zaliha said she believed it could be organised with a certain concept to attract domestic and international tourists.

"Maybe next year we can have a concept of selling traditional food with traditional clothing and so on which we can think of as a tourist attraction in the future.

"In the case of the Ramadan Bazaar, we can improve it by having uniform entrance arches and tents with uniform trader attire as well as common aprons and caps, and we also see that a clean environment can also be a tourist attraction," she said.

-- BERNAMA