Consumers urged to take cue from 14th general election
KOTA KINABALU: Consumers in the state should take a cue from the recently-concluded 14th general election (GE14), and muster the same spirit of unity and courage towards developing a stronger consumerism, said Consumers Front of Sabah (CFOS).
“We Malaysians have shown our power as voters at the recent general election; that’s exactly how we consumers should unite and show our ‘Consumer Power’. CFOS believe if we adopt the same attitude and put the same effort on consumerism, we can be as powerful as consumers in countries like Australia and the United Kingdom where, their government take their grievances seriously,” said its secretary-general, Hashima Hasbullah Yahya.
She noted that her past experiences in dealing with consumer issues showed that consumers in the state were meek and disunited, hence often allowed the unscrupulous traders, whom they complained about, to get away scot-free.
“And that’s especially frustrating for us in CFOS who have been working hard to gather the necessary evidences to act against the traders in question as, the complainants fear that there will be repercussion and were unwilling to proceed to the next course of action,” she lamented.
Hashima said this in a statement while welcoming the recent announcement by the Finance Ministry that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be reduced from 6% to 0% beginning June 1, 2018.
“CFOS believe by this adjustment, it will effectively lower prices of goods and services. In our opinion, it may take between six months to one year to see the positive effect of the adjustment.
“CFOS urge consumers to be more attentive of the prices of goods and services from now onwards. Please take a snapshot of all the displayed price tags of goods displayed at all the shopping malls, supermarkets, retail outlets, restaurants and hawkers centres that we frequently patronized, for record, so that we can later compare the prices and act accordingly, after the new ruling on GST comes into force on June 1,” she urged.
Hashima also assured that CFOS will continue to play its part to carry out random ‘price watch’ throughout the state, and to provide relevant suggestions to the State government, to better safeguard consumer interest.