Telang Usan folks attend briefing on subsidised goods

Some 40 community leaders and representatives of several villages under Telang Usan state constituency attended a briefing on subsidised goods, at a hotel here on Friday.

Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau said the briefing, organised by the Miri office of the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry (KPDN), was conducted upon the requests of his constituents.

“I have been receiving complaints from communities in my constituency about matters related to subsidised goods, which they claim are very difficult to get.

“Although the federal government has appointed contractors to undertake this task, the communities in the rural areas are claiming that they are unable to obtain these goods because they are not accessible,” he said when met after the briefing.

According to Dennis, the objective of the briefing was to give a clearer picture of the subsidised goods system and implementation, as well as to give the opportunity to the local community leaders to raise concerns to the KPDN through its officers here.

He stated that a few proposals were made during the briefing, one of which was to put the programme under the state government’s control for a much-improved delivery system.

“Presently, the federal government chooses which contractors to appoint for this programme, and somehow, the target groups are not reached.

“We, thus, propose for the programme to be handed over to the state government as we know our areas better and it would improve the delivery system for the benefit of our people, especially those living in the rural areas,” he said.

Dennis also suggested the KPDN to designate only one point-of-sale (POS) in every village selling the subsidised goods.

“This will prevent traders or business owners from profiteering off the government’s subsidised goods programme.

“Some shops in the villages currently sell both subsidised and non-subsidised goods. Any of them can simply claim that the subsidised items are sold at higher prices since there is no labelling on the products to differentiate between the two.

“Therefore, we propose that the KPDN would look into this issue, perhaps appointing only one POS in each village, and label every subsidised item to prevent profiteering by irresponsible traders,” he said.

Also present at the briefing was KPDN Miri head Joe Azmi Jamil.