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utri Yuliana, 25, nodded and gave her approval when a cashier in a minimarket asked her to donate her change of Rp 200 (less than 1 US cent) when she bought a carton of milk in Gondangdia Train Station in Central Jakarta.

“I always let them take my change for donations,” she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

A regular in the minimarket buying snacks for breakfast before going to her office in Kebon Sirih, she said she let the cashiers keep her change believing that the owner of the minimarket would manage consumers’ donations wisely for the needy.

Another minimarket regular Edward, 26, also said he was happy to donate the small change he received from his purchases.

The two, however, echoed similar sentiments that despite leaving their change to be distributed via the company’s social programs, they would like to know how the funds were disbursed.

“It should be disclosed as they come from many people,” Edward said.

The capital’s minimarkets regularly suggest customers donate their small change through the companies’ social aid programs. The capital’s residents seem also to have little objection to the scheme and often decline change from the money they spend in the stores.

However, this took a different turn after the Central Information Commission (KIP) instructed on Monday that publicly listed minimarket chain PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya (SAT), the operator of Alfamart minimarkets, must publish the company’s data on public donations.

The commission ruled in favor of a petition by a customer named Mustholih who filed the request for Alfamart to provide information on donations raised in its minimarkets.

The requested data included the rules of association and internal bylaws, the decree of appointment of the donation committees, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) or agreement between SAT and charitable foundations as well as the number and names of the recipients.

SAT, however, appealed the ruling on Wednesday, corporate affairs director Solihin said in a press
statement.

Solihin said one of the main points to which the company objected was that SAT was described as a public institution, therefore, it should meet the request of the plaintiffs to disclose its information.

“We are a business. It is incorrect to regard us as a public institution,” he said.

According to the 2008 Law on public information transparency, public institutions include executive, legislative, judicial or other institutions whose function and main tasks are related to state activities, and which are more than half funded from the state budget or city budget, or non-governmental organizations whose funding is from the state or city budgets or public donations.

“We have clarified that SAT is not a non-governmental organization whose funding is from public donations,” he said.

He expressed the hope that the information dispute would not disrupt the donation programs of Alfamart.

“We have a good cause and intentions for the program, including the holding of social events all over Indonesia,” he said.

He cited several projects funded by customers’ donations including three shelters for cancer patients worth Rp 2.3 billion (US$171,003) in early 2015. The company also donated Rp 6.9 billion to the Bright Eyes, Bright Future program by distributing free glasses to children in Indonesia who suffered from impaired vision. The company had also cooperated with national and international social foundations like UNICEF, the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), the Indonesian Care for Cancer Kids Foundation and Kick Andy Foundation.

Meanwhile, Wiwiek Yusuf, the marketing director of another minimarket chain Indomaret said the chain also used donations for social aid programs in accordance with the regulations of the Social Affairs Ministry.

She cited as an example Indomaret’s 2015 donation of Rp 4.2 billion for autistic children through the Foundation for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Children (YPAC).

— JP/Corry Elyda