IT must be understood that prices generally increase over time. This is because of two basic reasons – as populations and living standards rise, there is greater demand for goods and services. The other is when input costs go up for various reasons.
When the Government decided to rationalise subsidies and move towards market pricing for certain necessities, we knew that price increases would be inevitable. In this context, our concern is to ensure that the price increases are not too high and can be absorbed by the rakyat.