The Madinah Municipality is closing down small businesses in the stomachs of traders near the Masjidunnabavi. Institutions with an area of less than 24 square meters are closed by the corporation. The municipality is enforcing the provision that the area of commercial establishments should not be less than 24 square meters. Many institutions have already been shut down by the municipality on the grounds that this provision is incomplete. The traders demanded that they be exempted from the new provision instead of paying the license fee as per the minimum acreage as before.
Traders are going through a severe financial crisis. Businesses near the Masjidunnabavi have seen a sharp decline in sales due to the conditions created by the corona expansion. The corporation is adamant that businesses must have the same area as the corporation license. According to municipal regulations, the area of commercial establishments should not be less than 24 square meters. According to the traders, the area of the establishments is registered in the license accordingly.
Ahmed Alavi, one of the traders, said that in the current situation, the closure of businesses with an area of less than 24 square meters is not acceptable. In the current situation, maintaining businesses with an annual rent of five lakh riyals is a challenge. According to Ahmed Alavi, renting a 24-square-meter room would cost up to 15 million riyals a year, according to the municipality.
Another trader, Abdullah al-Shankhithi, said the municipality already knew the difference between the area covered by the license and the actual area of the business. The fee for an area of 24 square meters is paid by the municipality. For a long time now, traders with smaller acreages have been paying the minimum acreage fee to the municipality. This is an old problem. Abdullah al-Shankhiti said the problem could not be solved by closing down institutions.
According to Mustafa Mohammed, the municipality's demand that businesses vacate or expand after 20 years is creating a crisis. There are more than 2,000 businesses in Madinah with less area than those licensed by the municipality. They are not opposed to municipal regulations. But Mustafa Mohammed said they wanted it to be implemented in stages. Moosa al-Rashidi said the decision to implement the decision during the Corona crisis after paying a year's rent in advance had left traders in limbo.
Mohammed al-Amri said he has two establishments near Masjidunnabavi with an annual rent of more than four lakh riyals a year. One morning the mayor came and demanded that the area be increased to 24 square meters or that the establishments be closed. The mayor also registered a violation of the law in his name. It is up to the building owner to make changes to the area of the rooms as per municipal regulations. And they should not force themselves on it. He expressed his grief and approached the municipality and the building owner to resolve the issue but to no avail. The municipality replied that it would take punitive action if the conditions were not met and the owner replied that he was committed to abiding by the lease agreement. He pays 1102 riyals daily in rent. For eight months, there has been no trade in businesses near Masjidunnabavi.
The Madinah Municipality said it was deliberately overstating the area of businesses in order to obtain licenses. According to the regulations of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, the minimum area for businesses to be licensed anywhere in the country should be 24 square meters. Owners of establishments near Masjidunnabavi, which do not have a minimum acreage, were earlier summoned to the corporation and given written assurances that the area would be increased or vacated. The Madinah municipality said it had given traders two and a half months to rectify the situation.
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