PUTRAJAYA is setting up a new special committee at the national level to look into the prices of daily food essentials and household necessities that are soaring in Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan.
The new committee is headed by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusuf.
Minister in the Prime Minister Department Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali said the Prime Minister’s Department has taken note of the expensive prices of essentials in east Malaysia.
Armizan, who is minister in charge of special functions and affairs of Sarawak and Sabah, said the special committee is tasked with looking at ways to tackle the rising costs.
“We in the PM’s Dept take note with concern that prices of essentials in Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan are rising.
“The prices in the east Malaysian region are much higher than the prices of similar goods in the peninsula states.
“The special committee formed to deal with this is chaired by Fadillah and will try to tackle the root causes,” he said after attending an official event at the Civil Defence Unit in Kuching.
Armizan said the federal administration under the 2024 Budget had set aside specific financial allocations to help stabilise the costs of daily essentials for rural districts in Sarawak and Sabah.
“The Budget for next year has funds of RM40 million for the price standardisation programme for east Malaysia.
“Another RM225 million will be for essential goods transportation subsidy programmes for rural east Malaysia,” he said.
Armizan said one of the factors causing soaring prices in east Malaysia is due to the states directly importing certain raw materials from overseas.
He said the federal government will look into all these factors and coordinate closely with the state administrations to overcome this problem. – The Vibes, December 9, 2023
