SHAH ALAM, 12 Jan: The Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (FOMCA) recommends for the government to conduct comprehensive monitoring, especially on wholesalers and traders, to ensure that the prices of goods sold in the market are controlled.
The FOMCA Public Relations Officer, Mohd Yusof Abdul Rahman, said that some traders are forced to impose higher sales prices due to the suppliers charging unreasonable prices for an item.
He said that the government must also ensure that any wholesaler found imposing high sales prices to traders are taken action against under the Price Control Act.
“The traders or retailers depend on the prices set by supplier or wholesalers, so if they get it at a high price, they have to resell it at a higher price.
“As such, monitoring should be improved among wholesalers to see if they are causing the prices of goods to go up because usually retailers have no choice,” he told Selangor Kini.
Meanwhile, when commenting on the rise in prices of green vegetables in the Klang Valley at a rate of RM10 per kilogram after the flood disaster compared to the previous price of RM3 per kilogram, Mohd Yusof said that this should not have happened.
He said that traders should not take advantage of using the excuse of low supply because most of the supply for such goods does not come from the state affected by the floods.
“Although the vegetables do not come from states affected by the floods, like Cameron Highlands and Ulu Yam, but we found that many vendors made it an excuse to increase the price of goods.
“I hope that the government will monitor traders so that they do not take advantage of the current situation,” he said.
NS
