TRADERS at the Isa Town Traditional Market will have to pay higher rents starting next month.
The Southern Municipal Council yesterday gave the Southern Municipality the go-ahead to increase rents for old shops to BD360 a month and new shops to BD93.500 per month.
The council also directed the municipality to revise the contracts of shopping centres and supermarkets in the market complex to incorporate the increased rents.
“The new rents will help resolve the existing under-the-table leases by original owners to others, especially old shops measuring 80sqm,” said council chairman Ahmed Al Ansari at the council’s weekly meeting.
“For instance, a Bahraini owner has sub-let a small corner in his shop for BD1,200 a month, while the municipality charges him only BD50 a month for the entire shop,” he said.
“The current situation is not benefiting the municipality or the government revenue. People are cheating the system and making money without really running a business themselves.
“When we visited the shops and talked to several traders we realised that they were the 10th or the 11th lessee.”
Mr Al Ansari said the market was set up to serve the public and allow low-income people to run business. “The market is not being run at the moment by low earners, it is being run by rich individuals who end up leasing the space to Asians for high fixed returns.”
The GDN reported in May 2015 that the government planned to bulldoze the popular weekend flea market within the complex, with a view to expanding it and making it more appealing to tourists.
New designs are still being reviewed by the Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry, which wants to turn the suq into a tourist destination similar to those in Manama and Muharraq.
It submitted its plans to the council, which proposed scrapping the area allocated for the weekend flea market and utilising it for other purposes.
The market suffered extensive damage in a fire in March 2014.
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