MORE than RM380mil had been allocated for the bottled cooking oil subsidy in the past 11 months up to June under the temporary subsidies programme, says Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Rosol Wahid.
He said the total subsidy for cooking oil in 1kg, 3kg and 5kg containers under the temporary subsidy and price control programme, which was in effect from August 2021 until June 2022, amounted to RM380,102,45.71.
“This is only for cooking oil,” he said, adding that subsidies for gas, petrol, sugar and other necessities were not included.
Rosol was responding to Karupaiya Mutusami (PH-Padang Serai) on the cost of subsidies for necessities in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said last month that the total amount of subsidies was expected to reach close to RM80bil this year, the largest in history.
Rosol also said the government had decided to discontinue the temporary subsidies for 1kg, 3kg and 5kg bottled cooking oil from July 1.
“Ending the subsidies does not mean the government is not considerate towards the people due to the exponential rise in raw material prices,” he said, adding that cooking oil in 1kg polybags continued to be sold at a subsidised price of RM2.50.
He said the temporary subsidies were given to alleviate the people’s burden following the economic challenges that ensued from the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise in global crude palm oil prices that had affected the price of bottled cooking oil.
Rosol added that due to the subsidies, the price of 5kg cooking oil was capped at RM29.70.
He was responding to a question by Datuk Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub (BN-Machang) on whether the ministry would continue the subsidy for bottled pure cooking oil until the end of this year to reduce the burden on the people.
Meanwhile, Rosol said 100 cases of abuse in the supply of subsidised cooking oil were recorded, with a total seizure worth RM2.2mil from July 1-24 this year.
He said 12,417 premises were inspected through various operations, including Ops ATM (for chicken, eggs and cooking oil) and Ops Anti Sorok, while 117 complaints were received in the same period.
“For chicken and eggs, 157 cases were detected from inspections on 10,302 premises and seizures amounting to RM22,677 were recorded,” Rosol told Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim (GPS-Batang Lupar).
