Supermarts urged to display non-GST items separately
Published on: Sunday, May 28, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Jainab Ahmad called on supermarkets and shops to display non-GST items separately to show the public that the prices of some items have gone down even with GST."A lot of people are saying the Cabotage policy is going to be 'abolished' but we still don't know if the cost of items will go down or not. If it goes up they will blame the GST. So we want to show to the people that GST is not the reason for the increase in prices. "Some items do not have GST such as fish and vegetables, for example, but the public do not know this.
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"So I call upon Giant for a start to put aside for the Ramadan month those items that do not have GST. This is because necessity items such as sugar, flour and gas do not have GST."She said many other shops feel it is something too difficult for them to do. "But I feel it is not so difficult. We just need to show with GST the prices have gone down already.
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Of course there may be some items which have gone up due to our currency exchange. "Other supermarket and shops in rural areas can also use this opportunity to do the same to show to the public.
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I feel that if we can do this with the cooperation of all, it can be something good for the people."She said this when met by the media at Giant Kolombong, on Saturday. Jainab said another issue where hypermarkets such as Giant can also assist is in supplying cooking oil to rural areas."It looks like there is no longer a cooking oil shortage issue nowadays. In the past there have been complaints by the public on the shortage. "Although it is no longer an issue in urban areas, there may be still shortages in the villages in the rural areas. So perhaps supermarkets can go into the villages to sell the cheap cooking oil packets there on a rationed basis. "This is where the various area community leaders can work with us to let us know as we are not sure ourselves where such shortages occur. "We will also be launching the controlled prices exercise soon. Here we also seek the assistance of supermarkets and shops not to increase their prices."For example, Indian frozen beef has been sold all along at RM13 per kg but suddenly we find the price has been changed to the maximum control price limit of RM23 per kg. This is a case where instead of lowering or maintaining the price they increased it as they know the maximum controlled price allowed is RM23. "So I urge all parties to continue their low prices and not to increase them just because they can. This is what is called fair price shopping. "So we and the Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry will monitor the situation."Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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