PETALING JAYA: It is within the rights of pawnbrokers to charge interest on loans throughout the duration of the movement control order (MCO).
The Malaysia Pawnbrokers Association (MPA) said yesterday this is provided for under the Pawnbrokers Act.
MPA president Tan Ho Keng denied the association had agreed beforehand to give a three-month moratorium on interests as alleged by the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (Fomca).
“We could have been misquoted by Fomca or the news agencies that carried the report,” he told theSun.
He was referring to a statement by Fomca chief operating officer Saravanan Thambirajah that MPA had previously stated charges would not be imposed for three months, specifically from March 18 to May 12.
Saravanan said Fomca had received complaints from consumers who had been told to pay interest charges for up to nine months.
“It is within the rights given to us by the law, as stated in the Pawnbrokers Act 1972, to collect interest according to the loaned period,” Tan said.
“We too have overhead costs during the MCO months that need to be attended to.
“It is not the pawnbrokers’ responsibility to ease the people’s burden and pawnshop owners are only executing the operation according to the stipulated Act,” he said.
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