Reports by MARTIN CARVALHO, ASHLEY TANG and FATIMAH ZAINAL

       THE government will have to spend more than RM2bil this year to maintain the subsidised price of the one kilogram cooking oil polybags.

       Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Rosol Wahid said last year, the cooking oil subsidy was RM1.9bil.

       “There is a suggestion to slightly increase the price from RM2.50 to probably around RM3 due to rising commodity prices.

       “But, this has to be carefully scrutinised to ensure that we do not add to the rakyat’s burden at a time when they are already struggling,” he said in reply to Chan Foong Hin (PH-Kota Kinabalu) who asked about the cooking oil subsidy borne by the government.

       Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis (Warisan-Kota Belud) also asked the ministry to state the real cause of the shortage of subsidised cooking oil and the government’s efforts to clampdown on the embezzlement and smuggling of cooking oil.

       Rosol said there was a shortage of cooking oil in the market due to the low controlled price of RM2.50 for the subsidised 1kg polybags.

       He said although the government had made it a condition that subsidised cooking oil was only to be purchased by domestic households, it was also being purchased by small and medium-scale traders to reduce their operating costs.

       “The purchase of the cooking oil in large quantities contributed to the shortage in the market as stocks finished much earlier than intended,” he said, adding that smuggling of the product into neighbouring countries also added to the problem.

       “We also detected decanting where people take the subsidised cooking oil and transfer it into a bottle to sell at a higher price,” he said.

       To counter these issues, he said the ministry was inspecting and auditing every stage of the cooking oil distribution chain, setting a purchase limit of three subsidised cooking oil polybags, and suspending the quota and licences of companies found to be involved in the embezzlement and smuggling of cooking oil, among others.

       As of March 17, Rosol said the ministry conducted 6,995 inspections on premises involved in the cooking oil business, adding that 25 investigation papers have been opened and 94 premises were still being audited. He also said the Malaysian Family Sales Programme (PJKM) would be continued after Ramadan if the budget for it was enough.

       The Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister said the government is studying the need to extend the programme.

       “Hopefully, we will have the budget to continue this programme,” he told Datuk Rubiah Wang (GPS-Kota Samarahan).

       PJKM was set up as a government initiative to help ease the people’s cost of living, especially for low-income groups impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and recent floods.