Kuala Lumpur City Hall is sticking to its proposal to issue sales permits for the upcoming Chinese New Year festival to Chinese traders only.

Its director of hawker development and licence, Ibrahim Yussof, said that due to limited space, controversy might arise if other races were also allowed to sell their goods.

"Normally peddlers will sell festival-related goods; for instance, Indian traders will sell religious items in the Deepavali bazaar, Malays will sell baju melayu during the Ramadan bazaar, and Mandarin oranges are sold in the Chinese New Year bazaar.