By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, July 25: Fourteen subsidised cooking oil packaging companies in Malaysia had their licences revoked and were brought to court after they were caught smuggling the goods to neighbouring countries.
Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Dato Rosol Wahid said that was part of the stern action taken by the government to overcome the issue of smuggling subsidised cooking oil.
“At the moment, the ministry has no index (on cooking oil subsidy leakage) but we have revoked the licence quota of at least 14 companies.
“I was informed that these companies are in trial process in court related to the issue of leakage or smuggling of subsidised cooking oil to neighbouring countries,” he said when answering questions from Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub (BN-Machang) in Dewan Rakyat today.
He also mentioned that the Ministry would examine the role of government-linked companies (GLCs) as subsidised cooking oil packagers to ensure that they can contribute to overcoming the problem of subsidised cooking oil leakage abroad.
Earlier, Rosol also reiterated that the government has decided to not continue the subsidy for bottled cooking oil effective July 1, 2022.
However, the subsidy for cooking oil in 1kg polybag packages priced at RM2.50 per packet will continue.
“The government introduced a temporary subsidy programme for bottled cooking oil of 1kg, 2kg, 3kg and 5kg, from August 2021 until June 2022 to help Malaysians affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“At that time, the price of a 5kg cooking oil was below RM30 which is at RM29.70 only,” he added. — DayakDaily
