KUCHING, Jan 25: The Keluarga Malaysia Sales Programme (PJKM) implemented last December has attracted some 426,305 visitors to 274 locations nationwide with recorded sales of RM7.8 million as of mid-January, and will be carried out until March this year.
The programme was targeted at B40 and M40 residential areas, offering a variety of essential goods at prices 20 per cent to 50 per cent lower than the market rate to ease the people’s financial burden.
Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Dato Sri Alexander Nanta Linggi disclosed this at the 2022 Malaysian Economic and Strategic Outlook Forum held virtually today.
“This ministry is aware of the struggles by businesses and consumers with escalating prices, particularly the cost of food products. Globally, the price hike happened due to rampant demand for goods and services that met bottlenecks due to supply chain disruptions.
“While many of these price increases are caused by external factors beyond the government’s control, we are, nonetheless, doing our best to contain the situation.
“We also acknowledge that for households with low disposable income levels where food expenditures are a large share of the budget, rising food prices result in diminished purchasing power and may force difficult budgetary trade-offs,” he said.
Nanta, who is also the Kapit MP, said that to help food-deficient households during periods of rising prices, the government is taking a holistic approach to tackle all related factors and impacts, to retain consumer purchasing power during periods of rising food price, such as PJKM.
“KPDNHEP (Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs) has also launched the Keluarga Malaysia Maximum Price Scheme in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of Keluarga Malaysia.
“This is done in the hope of stabilising prices and lightening the burdens of the cost of living for the rakyat and avoiding further hardships.
“However, I would also like to emphasise the prime minister’s stern reminder to all players in the supply chain not to take advantage of this situation by unnecessarily increasing prices of goods. Those that do will face harsh action and fines.” — DayakDaily
