As the rakyat’s livelihoods continue to get worse under FMCO, the B40 group has find it almost impossible to purchase subsidised cooking oil
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Seputeh, Teresa Kok in a statement last Saturday (19 June 2021) urged the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) to conduct a through study on whether there are leakages in the Cooking Oil Subsidy System (COSS). This is because the targeted B40 group for the subsidy has been finding it virtually impossible to find these subsidised cooking oil on the market.
Amidst the skyrocketing prices of cooking oil for our local consumers, the B40 under PN saw a daily commodity item become something they can no longer afford. Hence, it is extremely important to make sure that COSS is working as intended and not abused by any parties at the expense of the rakyat’s livelihoods.
Teresa, who is also the former Minister of Primary Industries asserted,
“Many people under the B40 group are unable to purchase the subsidised cooking oil in sundry shops and supermarkets, and they are forced to buy cooking oil of 2kg and above with the higher price.”
Teresa further elaborated that under COSS, the government has been subsidising 60 million 1kg cooking oil in the form of poly pack per month when Crude Palm Oil (CPO) price reaches RM2,250 per metric tonne. These poly packs are sold at RM2.50 each and is intended to help the B40 group.
Furthermore, if 60 million packs were to be distributed to all 35 million residents in Malaysia, each person should’ve been able to receive 1.7kg of the subsidised cooking oil. Therefore, a scheme such as COSS which is only intended for the B40 group should’ve ensured more than enough subsidised cooking oil if implemented correctly.
Hence, there must be something amiss and ’leakages’ in the system must be rectified as soon as possible. The Seputeh MP stressed,
“If KPDNHEP doesn’t find ways to stop the leakages in COSS before it introduces new policy on subsidies, the leakages will continue and the subsidies of the government would not reach the people in the B40 category, but it will cause further wastage of the limited government resources.”
Recently, the increase of cooking oil price resulted by the hike of CPO price has become an issue among Malaysian consumers with many criticising PN’s Minister of Plantation Industries, Dato’ Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali who claimed that the price hike is ‘reasonable’.
Previously, Teresa has urged PN to use crude palm oil export duty and windfall profit levy to subsidise cooking oil price in our country. Indeed, Malaysia is the second largest palm oil producing country in the world, so why is PN making the rakyat’s lives harder this FMCO by allowing cooking oil prices to balloon out of control? – The Rocket.
