THE Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry has been urged to make it compulsory for traders to display tags with government-recommended prices on all food items to curb profiteering practices that have especially surfaced during difficult economic times.
Welfare activist P Murugiah said that there should be two price labels on every food item – the recommended price and the retail sale price.
The Penang Hindu Association (PHA) president said that he believes there to be a 200% increase in food prices, especially for essential items ranging from milk to flour, as well as curries and nutritional foods, from 2015 until the present.
“The prices have simply shot up and never subsided,” said Murugiah in an interview in George Town.
The PHA conducts monthly assessments of food prices, as part of its service to the poor and B40 low-income groups. It has tabulated price comparisons for several food items during the pre- and post-pandemic periods.
He said that part of the problem is that errant traders have allegedly exploited the hike in food prices due to raised import costs to further increase it on their end.
The situation is further exacerbated by the value of the ringgit in a constant state of depreciation.
There is also a tendency to invoke an artificial food shortage to drive up prices, which has happened in the past year with eggs and rice – both being essentials for the local consumers, he stressed.
To avoid profiteering, the effective mechanism is to have two labels for prices – recommended and actual sale prices.
“This would help enlighten consumers to determine the extent of profits that retail traders may make from sales of food items,” he said.
“It would also become a deterrent to prevent traders from unethical profiteering practises.”
Consumers bear burden, believe excuses
The association has also discovered that traders are reducing the weight of items, such as milk powder, rice and curry powder, especially in isolated localities where the prying eyes of the authorities are non-existent or rare, Murugiah said.
The prices are kept the same despite tampering with the weight, he claimed.
Generally, Murugiah said, overpricing or profiteering exists in some mini market chains where now the common excuses given are that there is acute shortage due to the inconsistent global supply chains.
“Consumers accept it because they realise that 80% of Malaysian food items are imported. So, they bear this without realising that some errant traders also profiteer,” he said.
Murugiah urged the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry to impose export tax on food items that are exported despite there being a domestic food shortage in the country.
India bans the export of certain food items if the local market is struggling to feed the country’s own people.
“It can be replicated in Malaysia. We should either ban or impose a tax on exporters who continue to export their items overseas despite a growing demand for it domestically,” he said.
There needs to be more intervention from the ministries to rein in food prices, he stressed. – The Vibes, November 15, 2023
