KOTA KINABALU – A total of 99 notices were issued by the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry to Sabah traders for raising the prices of food items like eggs, chicken, vegetables, and beef this year.
In a statement today, the ministry’s Sabah director Georgie Abas said that the notices were issued under Section 21 of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011, following the inspection on 1,403 premises under Op Pasar 2021.
“As of yesterday this year, the Sabah ministry has inspected a total of 94,239 business premises in Sabah, and taken action against 1,133 cases for various offences. The confiscated items are worth RM1.63 million in total.
“A total of RM133,800 in compounds was also collected this year, while RM345,000 in fines were collected from cases charged in courts,” Georgie said.
He said the ministry had also received 1,333 complaints from consumers this year, and 1,306 (97%) of the total cases have been investigated.
“We received the most complaints for unreasonable prices (519), followed by online transaction problems (372), and confusing services (165),” he said.
Georgie said the ministry, with the assistance of other enforcement agencies, had successfully stopped attempts to smuggle controlled goods such as liquid petroleum gas, subsidised cooking oil, flour, sugar, RON95 petrol, and diesel out of the country.
“The Sabah ministry has investigated and prosecuted 64 cases with the confiscated items worth RM817,393 in total,” he said.
Georgie reminded traders to obey the business laws enforced by the ministry, and consumers to spend wisely. – The Vibes, November 29, 2021.
