KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 — Players in the cooking oil industry seem reluctant to agree to a two-tier cooking oil pricing proposal, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub said the response from the industry players was based on protecting the interests of smallholders.
“From time to time, we try to solve this problem through dealings with industry players on two-tier pricing (proposal), but it seems that the industry is a bit reluctant because they look after the (interests of) smallholders,” he said during the question-and-answer session today.
Salahuddin was responding to a question by Rasah MP Cha Kee Chin, regarding the government’s willingness to increase the quota of subsidised cooking oil packets in the local retail market so that the supply will be sufficient.
Before this, there was a proposal regarding the feasibility of pricing through a two-tier system for cooking oil for domestic use and export since the product is currently determined through a single-price system.
To a supplementary question by Cha regarding enforcement on leakages and whether the country is facing a crisis in the supply of the commodity, he said that so far, the supply of subsidised cooking oil packets has not reached a crisis level.
“If there are cases (shortage of supply) that happen in certain places, KPDN will act swiftly,” Salahuddin said.
Apart from this, the ministry will not compromise on the leakage aspect with a total of 2,896 inspections carried out over the last two months with 13 cases brought to court.
— Bernama
