SUNGAI PETANI: The Kedah Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) has received 10 complaints regarding the supply of cooking oil for the period between March 12 and today (April 7).

Its director, Muhammad Nizam Jamaludin said of this number, three complaints each were received from the Alor Setar, Sungai Petani and Baling areas, and one from the Kulim area.

“However, only three complaints were acted upon and these involved the offences of hoarding controlled items, selling cooking oil above the ceiling price and conditional purchases.

“Seven other complaints were not acted upon after an inspection found that there was no case to answer,“ he said in a press conference after officiating the state-level Festive Season Maximum Price Scheme (SHMMP) for Hari Raya Aidilfitri at a supermarket near here today.

According to him, the case of hoarding involved a supply of one-kilogramme (kg) packets of cooking oil at a premises in Alor Setar whereas the case involving the sale of cooking oil packets being sold at RM2.80 per packet compared to the controlled price of RM2.50 per packet was in Baling.

“The other complaint was in Sungai Petani involving the purchase of conditional packets of cooking oil where the buyer had to make a purchase worth RM50 to buy two packets of cooking oil. All three premises involved committed offences under the Control of Supplies Act 1961,“ he added.