Published on: Friday, May 30, 2008 |
Kota Kinabalu: Consumers in Sabah and Sarawak can buy three types of rice according to grade - Super Tempatan (ST) 15 per cent, Super Special Tempatan (SST) 5 per cent and SST 10 per cent - at the same price as those in Peninsular Malaysia, effective June 1.
This follows the Government's decision on May 12, this year to have the maximum price of the said rice grades in the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak fixed and standardised at RM1.80 per kg for ST 15, RM2.80 per kg for SST 5 and RM2.70 per kg for SST 10.
Besides that, the Government had also decided that the prices of imported rice like Basmati, Pulut and Beras Wangi Thai in the country be kept afloat. However, this will not be implemented in Sabah, following a request made by the State Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry. Sabah still depends very much on imported rice to cater for its local consumption. At present, about 70 per cent of its rice supply are imported.
Announcing this in a news conference after attending a briefing by officials from the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry (MOA) on the matter at Wisma Pertanian, here, Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Yahya Hussin said:
"The implementation of this standardised rice market pricing will also see the price of rice in Sabah being officially controlled by the Government for the first time.
"The Government-controlled market price for rice, however, does not involve Beras Putih, Beras Istimewa, Beras Wangi and Beras Rebus."
Yahya, who is also Agriculture and Food Industry Minister, said different colour logos to facilitate identification of these different types of rice grades would be placed on the rice packaging.
The logo for rice grade ST 15 would be in dark yellow, while the SST 5 and 10 grades in dark blue.
For those rice grades which are not under the market price-controlled list (imported rice), the logo would be in bright blue for Beras Putih, orange for Beras Istimewa, red for Beras Wangi and brown for Beras Rebus.
Yahya said the move was part of the Government's efforts to deal with the drastic increase in the price of particularly imported rice as a result of global rice shortage, adding the move in Sabah would cost the Federal Government subsidy amounting RM243.7million.
During the briefing, the MOA officials also disclosed that the Federal Government had approved a RM75 million allocation to Sabah this year for financing the immediate works on the existing paddy cultivation areas as well as for supplying additional subsidised fertiliser.
A supplementary allocation for developing new identified paddy-planting areas in Sabah is currently being studied by the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister's Department under the Mid-Term Review of the Ninth Malaysia Plan.
Yahya also said Sabah had been granted another additional allocation of RM480 million from the Federal Government for the development and improvement of its paddy farming infrastructures.
"But it is less from the actual amount we requested from the Federal Government for the purposeÉwe are now pursuing for the balance of about RM190 million," he said.
Yanya's Assistant Minister Datuk Bobbey Suan and other Ministry officials were also present.
