George Young Si Ricord Jr
KUCHING (May 4): Habitat for Indigenous and Urban Programme (Hidup) chairman George Young Si Ricord Jr has urged the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) to have multi-pronged enforcement programme that combines strong enforcement by the ministry’s officers apart from having avenues by which complaints over unscrupulous practices can be made to the KPDNHEP via SMS or WhatsApp.
He made this call following the action of the ministry to add another 20 items to the 2021 Hari Raya Puasa Festive Season Maximum Price Control Scheme (SHMMP) list.
“While the list of price-controlled essential goods is an important tool, of equal importance too is enforcement. Many a times, laws and regulations meant to promote and safeguard the well-being of citizens failed to meet the stated objectives because of poor enforcement,” he said in a statement.
Apart from that, he also urged the KPDNHEP to put extra efforts into the aspect of price control because the Covid-19 pandemic has not only caused consumers to be badly constrained in the management of their income but many have lost their sources of income as well or have seen their income shrink drastically.
While there are many similarities between rural based and urban based B40 households, he pointed out that there are also differences which the enforcement arm of the KPDNHEP must take into account and monitor so that certain food items are kept within the reach of urban based B40 households.
He also noted with great concern reports that the number of B40 households in Sarawak of which the majority are rural based, has now exceeded 60 per cent.
“Modern technology has greatly improved business houses’ ability to prolong the freshness of fresh food items like vegetables, fish and meat thus enabling them to control the volume of such food items into the retail sector like vegetables and wet markets.
“When that capability is in the hands of businessmen, the unscrupulous among them will use it to also control prices and maximise their profit margins, much to the detriment of struggling families. Consumers who have visited the wet market since the beginning of this pandemic in March last year can tell you that many types of fish are now out of their reach and so too vegetables,” he said.
He nevertheless wished to extend its appreciation to the KPDNHEP for its initiatives to prevent more of the essential items from becoming out of the reach to consumers especially consumers from the B40 households.