Press Digest - Cooking oil price debate heats up

PETALING JAYA: Caught between the rock and a hard place after the removal of the subsidy on cooking oil subsidy from this month, many sundry shop operators say they may have to stop selling the item until the situation becomes clearer.
According to a report in China Press today, which was quoting Federation of Sundry Goods Merchants Associations of Malaysia president Hong Chee Meng, these operators are in a no-win situation.
He said they have become the whipping boy for both the authorities and the public for suspected hoarding and profiteering.
He explained that when the price of palm-based cooking was allowed to float with the removal of government subsidy from Nov 1, sundry goods merchants were unsure how to determine the price, given the warning that their profit margin should remain unchanged, i,e, 10 sen, or they would be cited for profiteering.
Many operators are fuming, saying they would rather not sell cooking oil at such low profit margin, Hong pointed out.
"Initially, when there was a shortage of cooking oil, (as a result of the pre-Nov 1 rush), the public thought the merchants were hoarding the item. Some customers vented their anger on shopkeepers when they could not obtain cooking oil.
"To add fuel to the oil, enforcement officers from the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry started to conduct spot checks on the traders' business licence and their cooking oil stock," Hong told the daily.
The price of cooking oil had shot up overnight and the ministry made it clear that traders could sell their old stock at the new price effective Nov 1, but consumers had the impression that the traders are taking advantage of the situation to profiteer, lamented Hong.
On the ministry's warning that traders must not exceed their old profit margin of 10 sen after the price was raised, Hong said: "You want us to make no more than 10 sen when (5kg bottle cooking oil) is being sold at more than RM20 now?"
"Since the ministry has allowed the price to float, it should not cap the profit."