Govt urged to review charge on supermarket products

KUALA LUMPUR: Syarikat Faiza Sdn Bhd has urged the government to review the charge imposed on products manufactured by local companies that are supplied to the supermarkets.

Its Founder and Managing Director Datuk Faiza Bawumi Sayed Ahmad said the review was necessary to find ways to reduce the burden on Bumiputera suppliers such as Syarikat Faiza as every product supplied and sold in the supermarkets was subjected to a charge of 15 per cent of the sale price.

“The charge on local companies is too high and is equivalent to the charge imposed on international companies. We hope that it could be reduced to at least 10 per cent.

“The government must also consider to differentiate the charges on products supplied by local and international companies,” she told reporters after a meeting with the Council of Eminent Persons at Menara Ilham here yesterday.

Faiza Bawumi also urged the government to provide more financing facilities for mid-tier companies with annual revenue of between RM50 million and RM500 million.

“We had obtained a RM3.7 million loan in 1996 from Bank Bumiputra Malaysia Bhd and later received a fund of RM390,000 between 2008 and 2009 from the Small and Medium Industries Development Corporation.

“Since then we have not received any financing facility to expand our business. Most of the government assistances were focused on the SMEs (small and medium enterprises),” she said.

In another development, she also urged the government to abolish the permits required to deliver products including rice products in order to facilitate delivery to customers.

“The permits to deliver products from district to district or state are delaying the delivery process. For example, to deliver supplies from Johor to Melaka, we must first obtain the permit.

“There are states that observe Sunday as the weekend whereas the process to get permit takes three working days. Companies have to pay a high penalty when there’s delay in the delivery,” she added. - Bernama