KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 17 — Traders at Uptown Danau Kota who will be operating in Bazaria Wangsa Maju will enjoy lower rental rates for their sites without having to deal with third parties.

Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad said the fixed rental rates were RM225.20 per month for food businesses and RM212.70 for dry goods.

“If using a middleman the site rental fee will be at least RM500 to RM1,500 per month, then during the month of Ramadan the rent can go up to RM4,000 to RM5,000.

“We want to ensure that traders do not rent (sites) at a high price, if they rent using middlemen there is no control over the rent and the revenue does not go to Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), this is what we want to fix,” he said at a press conference here, today.

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Of course, licensed tenants have no problem moving, but there are certain parties who are believed to be ‘middlemen’ allegedly trying to incite and play the race card.

“Unlike reported in the social media, there was no commotion regarding the relocation.

“The main purpose of relocating is to resolve a few issues, among others the problem of traders without licence, traffic congestion and the issue of middlemen,” he said.

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Meanwhile, Khalid said the new hawker site is expected to be filled with traders and visitors by the end of December.

Earlier, he said that based on monitoring conducted on December 15, 242 traders had already started business at the temporary site while some vendors were preparing their respective stalls.

Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur Mayor Datuk Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan said DBKL would provide a three-month rental exemption for the sites to all traders who have moved to the new location, Bazaria Wangsa Maju, but it does not involve licence fees. — Bernama