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We Must Pay Just To Stand on the Asphalt

August 18, 2006

18_agv_asfalti.gifEvery day in Batumi, market traders on the area surrounding Boni market are made to pay a tariff by inspectors. The tariffs are not required by any law or set of rules but are demanded on unofficial basis by the tariff collectors themselves. The tariffs were initially demanded on the site of the market about two months ago.

“I might not earn two laris from these wild plums today. For what they make us pay this money I cannot understand. They say it is a tariff and we are obliged to pay it. Maybe we pay for the asphalt,” says one of the traders.

Every day villagers bring vegetables to sell here. Because dealers buying to resell, are their main customers, they stay on the market territory for quite a short time, on the pavement of Maiakovski Street and sell their harvest. Certain people come to them and demand money.

“As soon as you place the baggage on the ground for a short time, they immediately demand you pay a fare for it. They casually take either one lari or more. No one is aware how the sum is worked out. We, peasants are poor ones; first we grow the harvest through so many difficulties, then you bring it to sell. And here they make you pay for what you have not sold yet,” said Nanuli Mamuladze, a trader from the Chakvi community.

According to the traders, if they don’t pay the tariffs, the controllers and the security staff spoil their baggage. They would empty their sacks or better they would make them take the product inside the market, where the fare for 80square centimeters is one lari. The traders from the villages do not go inside the market because they sell their product quickly and do not have to pay official fares for it. However they have to pay even for several minutes on the pavement.

For resisting them, the controllers make the mini bus drivers to pay fares too. “Why should I pay if my passenger, whose baggage I have delivered, has not paid the fare to the controller, it’s no matter of mine?” asks Tamaz Takidze, driver of Kedi minibus.

Controllers Tina Mzhavanadze and Djambul Abashidze are famous among the traders. Controller Tina explains the tariffs: “Go to the administration and they will tell you. They pay for coming to our territory and selling here. That is what the fare is for.” Mzhavanadze does not answer any more questions. “The market is private and if you are using its territory you should pay. The pavement is on the other side of the street,” they say at the market administration.

Rezo Bezhanidze, director of the market, pretended to be chief of security on the phone and sent us to the market owner for comment. Despite the fact that Bezhanidzes denies being the director, the announcements put up on the market walls are signed by Rezo Bezhanidze, director.

Tengiz Bakuridze, owner of the market, said on the phone: “That is our territory and so they have to pay for standing and trading there. The tariff is legal and they are given numbered receipts.”

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi

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