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ollowing a Trade Ministry regulation on alcoholic-beverage distribution supervision, the Jakarta administration will begin prohibiting sales of alcoholic drinks at minimarkets and convenience stores across the city on April 16.

Jakarta Cooperatives, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Trade Agency (KUKMP) head Joko Kundaryo said his agency had informed minimarket and convenience store owners of the prohibition.

'€œIn accordance with the Trade Ministry regulation, we will begin prohibiting the sales of alcoholic beverages [in minimarkets] next month. We have informed the owners and they have agreed to support the regulation,'€ Joko said over the phone recently.

He went on that his agency would supervise the minimarkets and convenience stores and impose sanctions on any that continued to sell alcoholic beverages.

'€œWe will send a warning letter for each of the first three violations. We will revoke their license on the fourth violation,'€ Joko explained.

Under the Trade Ministry regulation, issued earlier this year, beverages with alcohol content ranging from 1 to 5 percent can only be sold in supermarkets and hypermarkets. Previously, minimarkets and convenience stores in the city could stock light alcoholic drinks in their racks.

Meanwhile, minimarket and convenience store representatives said that they had no objections and agreed to comply with the regulation.

PT Indomarco Prismatama public relations manager Nenny Kristyawati said the company had started to pull alcoholic drinks from their stores. Indomarco Prismatama operates minimarket chain Indomaret.

'€œAs a private company, we will comply with the governor regulations. We feel that it is also important that residents be informed of the [new] regulation,'€ Nenny told The Jakarta Post via text message recently. She added that sales of alcoholic beverages contributed less than 1 percent to the company'€™s income and that the prohibition would not greatly affect the company.

Separately, PT Modern Seven Eleven Indonesia public relations manager Neneng Sri Mulyati said that the company had no objections to the regulation and had already started to pull alcoholic beverages from their 7-Eleven stores across the city.

'€œAround 50 of our outlets do not sell alcoholic drinks since the policy was announced, so we have no problem with the regulation,'€ Neneng told the Post recently.

Meanwhile, Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama has expressed his disagreement with the ban, saying that internal supervision from stores would be enough to prevent underage customers buying alcohol.

'€œI don'€™t think [the regulation] is necessary. The stores can just ask for identification from anyone who purchases alcoholic drinks. They also have CCTV cameras near their tills for monitoring,'€ Ahok said recently.

The ban, enacted in consideration of the '€œprotection of morals and culture in society'€, has faced protests not only from retailers, but also from antidrug activists.

'€œHowever, we will comply with the government regulations and we will make adjustments,'€ Ahok said.

'€” JP/Dewanti A. Wardhani