Supply of subsidised cooking oil cut to 50,000 tonnes per month, from 85,000 previously

COOKING OIL: Monthly quota cut from 85,000 tonnes to 50,000 tonnes

The supply of subsidised cooking oil has been slashed from 85,000 tonnes per month to 50,000 tonnes per month.

The move, among others, is to curb the smuggling of the controlled item, said the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry.

It said that the supply, even though reducted from the previous amount, was enough to meet domestic demand.

“The quota is enough for the use of Malaysians, which is about 45,000 tonnes.

“We have an excess of 5,000 tonnes of cooking oil, so insufficiency is not an issue,” the ministry’s secretary-general, Datuk Seri Jamil Salleh, told the New Straits Times.

Before the implementation of the Cooking Oil Price Stabilisation Scheme, which saw some subsidies revoked, there was a high surplus of the item, far more than what was needed by the people, he said.

A big chunk of this excess was believed to have been smuggled out of the country and sold by traders at high prices.

So a reduction in supply, Jamil said, could curb smuggling.

Second Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani was reported to have said the government had lost up to RM540 million annually due to smuggling.

“Reducing the supply can prevent people from taking it out of the country.

“The problem is that some people mistake smuggling of cooking oil with exporting cooking oil.

“Any controlled item can be taken out of the country but people have to get approval from the ministry.”

Jamil said he had visited shops and hypermarkets in Kedah to monitor the price and supply of cooking oil.

He said there had been no issue with supply, and many shops were getting used to the new pricing and as such, the issue of cooking oil stabilisation was nearing the end.

Commenting on premises that hoarded cooking oil or sold them at higher prices, Jamil said the ministry was conducting regular checks.

The ministry had announced that the stabilisation scheme was done following the price increase in processed palm oil (olein) from RM2,341 per tonne in January last year to almost RM3,000 per tonne now.

While the price of cooking oil bottles is estimated to cost between RM3.70 to RM3.90 per kg, the price of 1kg packets was maintained at RM2.50.