Stern action against suppliers imposing price surcharge
KUCHING: The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs will take stern action against suppliers who impose a price surcharge on their goods following the implementation of the Sales and Service Tax (SST).
Its deputy minister Chong Chieng Jen said in fact, the ministry had discovered that several suppliers were looking to increase price of goods beyond the SST rate.
According to him, the suppliers had tried to impose an extra two to five per cent surcharge on their goods which were only to be charged 10 per cent SST.
“There are a few suppliers who have indicated that they are going to charge sundry shops and so on by increasing the price of their items.
“We find this unreasonable and we have taken action by issuing notices to them,” he told a press conference after leading the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Af fairs’ Ops Catut 5.0 together with Customs Department to conduct checks on the general prices of goods at Everrise BDC here yesterday.
Chong gave his assurance that his ministry is doing its best to ensure that no one will take advantage of the implementation of SST to make unreasonable or extraordinary profit.
“Our enforcement teams are working very hard on the ground on a daily basis where since September 1, they have conducted a few thousand inspections at factories and wholesalers throughout Sarawak.”
He disclosed that inspections that had been conducted thus far had found that most supermarkets in the state complied with the SST.
Citing Everrise BDC as an example, he said the price of
There are a few suppliers who have indicated that they are going to charge sundry shops and so on by increasing the price of their items. Chong Chieng Jen, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs deputy minister
most items sold there remained the same as during the tax holiday or zero per cent GST period.
“If we do a price comparison between prices of goods subjected to GST before June 1, the zero per cent GST period and also after the implementation of SST on Sept 1, a pack of noodles which used to be RM3.80 is now priced at only RM3.58 which is a decrease of 22 sen.
“We believe that when Everrise clears its existing stock, most prices of the items will not increase as there are around 5,400 goods exempted from SST compared to only 500 items exempted when GST was enforced,” he said.
Also present were the ministry Sarawak deputy director Md Nawawi Abdul Rahman and Everrise BDC store manager Liew Fui Lin.